Cilika- Its Ecological Rape

CHILIKA: ITS ECOLOGICAL RAPE!!

A Study of the Chilika Lake in Orissa and its Social and Environmental devastation

Presented at the Annual Seminar at Khandala
November, 2006
By Rovina Madan
T.Y.B.A
Roll no. 356

|No.     |Contents                                                                             |Page no.       |
|1.       |Introduction                                                                         |3               |
|2.       |The lake today                                                                       |4-5             |
|3.       |The new fishing economy                                                             |5-6             |
|4.       |Caste comes into play                                                               |7               |
|5.       |The Chilika Lease Policy, 1991                                                       |8-9             |
|6.       |Efforts taken to restore the lake and to ban shrimp culture                         |10-12           |
|7.       |Conclusion                                                                           |13-14           |
|8.       |Appendix                                                                             |15             |

Introduction
The Chilika Lake on the east coast of the state of Orissa is the second largest lake in the world. It is also the country’s biggest inland lake spreading across 1,100 km and is one of the major hotspots of bio-diversity in country .The Chilika is the largest brackish water lake in Asia and spans two districts- Puri and Ganjam. The term brackish basically means that the lake has a salty taste as it contains a mixture of salt water and fresh water. The lake is a pear-shaped wetland and is separated from the Bay of Bengal by a narrow point of land that extends into it-a spit which is about 60 km long. The lake forms a part of the Mahanadi delta and is fed by the Daya, Bhargavi and Nuna rivers from the north and the Rushikulya river from...