Orissa's Chilika Lake - Queen of natural beauty

Chilika is one of best bird sanctuaries of India. The spectacular view of the Chilika attracts birds and tourists across the blog. During the season, October to March every year milion migratory birds flock to Chilika, situated in Orissa, India. Of the nearly 60,000 birds, 20,000 were sighted in the lake's Nalabana island alone in Chilika this year. Chilika is the larges lake of India. Chilika Lake spreads across three districts Puri, Khurda and Ganjam. The atmosphere is just serene and undisturbed amidst the blue expanse of water on one side and an evergreen range of hills on the other. Dotted with a host of islands with romantic names, a cruise in Chilika will be a life-long memory.

Watching birds and capturing the pictures of birds are the most common activities seen among tourists. In Chilika, you can see the migrated birds from across the globe. As winter goes up the number of birds will increase significantly. It was declared one of the six wetlands of international importance for Arctic and Central Asian waterfowl by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Every year about a million migratory birds from places like Siberia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Himalayas come to the lake during winter.

The state government has taken several steps to protect the birds. More than 5,000 people, including villagers and wildlife officials, are engaged in ensuring that the birds move freely without any threat. The water spread of Chilika varies between 1,165 and 906 sq km during the monsoon and the summer respectively. A 32-km-long narrow channel connects the lagoon to the Bay of Bengal.

Places of tourist interest in Chilika : Kalijai Island, Honeymoon Island, Breakfast Island, Birds Island, Nalabana (Island of Reeds), Parikud Island, etc. are some of the important and interesting spots inside the lake.