Annual Bird Census Begins in Chilika Lake

Balugaon: The annual bird census began in Chilika Lake on Thursday morning. Chilika Lake is the largest brackish water lagoon in Asia.

The enumeration of birds in the lake started at 5:30 am and it will continue till 1 pm. To facilitate undisturbed bird counting tourist boating has been prohibited in the lake during the period.

At least 21 teams are involved in this bird census process. Each team includes 5-6 ornithologists. They will enumerate the migratory and domestic birds in the Chilika lagoon spreading over Rambha, Balugaon, Tangi, Satapada and Chilika forest ranges.

A mobile app ‘E-Bird’ is being utilized for the counting of the birds. The enumerators feed real-time data of the birds in the E-bird application after which it will be made available to everybody in the world.

Chilika lake is a major destination of migratory birds that arrive from far-off regions like the Caspian region, northern Eurasia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Lake Baikal, Russia and other neighbouring countries during the winter months every year. They return back at the onset of summer.