imphal in the days of yore manipur kings gifted salt cakes made in ningel as a mark of their appreciation but now just 10 families of the village are tenuously holding on to the dying art to eke out a meagre livingthe cakes which are circular discs of salt manufactured by boiling saline water from wells have yielded their pride of place to the ubiquitous modernday packaged saltthe use of the traditional salt cakes is now confined to religious functions related to mainly births and weddingswith the dwindling use of these salt cakes by people most families of ningel village in thoubal district are moving to other professionsningel is the lone village where the salt cakes are made and the number of wells from where the saline water is drawn has now come down to three from six earlierthe condition of the famous salt wells in the village chandrkhong seekhonng and waikhong has deteriorated because of lack of maintenance and excavation in the nearby hilly areas said former village pradhan m ingochathe officials of both private companies and the government had visited ningel many times in the past and expressed their eagerness to preserve the dying art in view of its historic importance but no assistance was provided to people despite petitions ingocha saidas making salt cakes is no longer profitable many families which earlier made these have shifted to agricultural work for their sustenancethe salt cakes are sold for rs 10rs 15 per slab not enough to meet our expenses binasakhi a salt maker saidwe generally make around 200 salt cakes per day during the wedding season the production increases by more than three times if this work becomes obsolete with time we will become jobless and the state will lose this ancient traditional art forever she addedlata another salt cakemaker in her 50s said the major difficulty lay in procuring wood to boil the saline water as it is very costly besides our work sheds are in very poor condition