Other States - Orissa   

Chilka authority joins hands with Fisheries Department

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Eco conerns: A view of the Chilka which swells during the monsoon as runoff water enters the lake from all sides. –

BERHAMPUR: Chilka Development Authority (CDA) has initiated efforts to rejuvenate the ecosystem of this lagoon. Monsoon is the time when the complex ecosystem of this lake revivifies to initiate the process of a food chain that attracts migratory avian guest from far off places every winter.

Coexistence of fresh water, brackish and marine ecosystems which are interdependent makes this lake unique. Monsoon season brings in favourable changes in the ecosystem of this lake every year for its future existence.

According to chief executive of the CDA Sudarsan Panda, they are taking up a massive awareness programme in villages around the lake to reduce polythene pollution. Students of 96 schools are also sensitized for about complex and fragile ecosystem of the lake. The State Government has already provided powers to the CDA to enforce Wild Life Protection Act to protect its ecosystem. Mr Panda said CDA had joined hands with the State Fisheries department to stop use of nets at river mouths joining with the lake as well at the mouth of the lake connecting it with the sea.

According to Muntaz Khan, research scholar with the CDA, during monsoon fresh water zones in the lake near the river mouths gets enhanced. Rivers bring in micronutrients into the lake which lead to growth of phyto-planktons, subsequently to the rise of zoo-planktons. As these planktons are the food of fish and arthropods, a large number of them get attracted by it to enter the lake area from sea. They subsequently become the food reserve for the migratory birds.

Mr Khan is critical of the illegal use of fishing nets near the mouth of the lagoon with the sea. "It is checking movement of juvenile fish and crab from sea into the lake, ultimately affecting the ecosystem of the lake and livelihood of fishermen villages on lining on the coast of the lake," he said. These fish and crab breed in sea and their juveniles enter the lake due to attraction of planktons in the lake during rainy season.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

An odd couple, indeed!
Dream house on the cards
3 of family struck dead by lightning
Forecast good for farmers
Accounts officer trapped
Samajwadi Party appeal to BJP
Revision in retirement age sought
Impose Central rule: J.B. Patnaik
KV to introduce Financial Market Management course
Chilka authority joins hands with Fisheries Department
A way out to dispose of bio-waste from private clinics
Two students from Bhubaneswar qualify for Horlicks Wiz Kids finals

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu