Book Chilika visit by click of a mouse

BHUBANESWAR: Visiting Chilika would soon be an easy and hassle-free experience with the Chilika Development Authority (CDA) set to launch a dedicated online booking portal as well as readying a trained force of guides to usher in the tourists around. The portal will be a one-stop-solution for all the requirements of a visitor. It will provide detailed information on the distinctive features of the 1,100-sq- km lagoon with illustrations and pictorials apart from boating and cruise maps.  The objective is not only to make visiting the lake an easy and enjoyable affair but also, more importantly, free the local boatmen community from middlemen, particularly cabbies.  At present, boat cruises covering places such as dolphin circuit or sea mouth or birding sites are all controlled more by the cabbies than the boatmen who ferry the tourists around. The cabbies pocket the major chunk of the average ` 1,100 for a three-hour tour as charged by boatmen’s associations by virtue of getting the customers. “We want to free the boatmen from the  clutches of the taxi operators and ensure more remuneration for them. The associations would be attached to the portal and all bookings directly passed on to them,” Chilika Development Authority (CDA) Chief Executive Ajit Kumar Patnaik said. The Authority has also started training  educated unemployed youths, who can become guides, while working on rolling out a bouquet of eco-friendly and non-invasive activities on the lake. Even as the CDA is set to introduce stand up paddle (SUP) board surfing in the lagoon, it is also ready to deploy battery-operated boats alongside motorised ones.  Five battery-operated boats would be introduced in the first phase in the next two months. The number will be gradually increased. Plans are afoot to set up a floating platform with an advanced high-power telescope for visitors at Nalabana, the famous site for migratory bird-watching paradise in the lagoon. Nalabana Island is the core area of Ramsar - designated wetlands of the lake. It was declared a bird sanctuary in 1973 under the Wildlife Protection Act. The seafood and eatery kiosks on the beach, stretching along the sea mouth, would wear a new look. They would be uniform in structure and colour and  equipped with amenities like bio-toilets, Patnaik said. Chilika is the largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian sub-continent. Flocks of migratory waterfowl arrive from as far as Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea, remote parts of Russia, Kirghiz Steppes of Mongolia, Central and South East Asia, Ladakh and the Himalayas, to feed and breed in its fertile waters. The lagoon hosts over 160 species of birds in the peak migratory season. It is also one of the hotspots of biodiversity in the country. Some of the migratory birds are white-bellied sea eagles, greylag geese, purple moorhen, jacana, herons and flamingos, egrets, grey and purple herons, Indian roller, storks and white ibis, spoonbills, brahminy ducks, shovellers and pintails. As per the CDA, 323 aquatic species, which includes 261 fish species, 28 prawns and 34 crabs are reported, out of which 65 species breed in the lake.  The Irrawaddy dolphin is the flagship species of the lake.