Welcome to Satapada, A Dolphin Sanctuary near Puri

Satapada near Puri is very famous for Dolphins.If you are planning to go puri or near by it then must visit Satapada, it is only 50 kilometers far from Puri.Satapada is located on the southern part of the Chilika Lake.This place is famous as the point where the Chilka Lake pours into the Bay of Bengal.

Satapada is one of the most popular tourist place of Orissa.Here Dolphin attracts a large number of tourists every year.It is advisable to reach there in morning hours and spent much of your time with Dolphins and migratory birds in winter.It is an ideal spot to enjoy with family.Another major attraction is the Rajahansa Island.

Here you get different varieties of birds.If you want to see the bird sanctuary by nearer then it takes around 4 hours by boat from Satapada.The Dolphin Motor Boat facility is also available, you can hire and go nearby to see the marverlous creatures in the sea. This visit is really a beautiful and worth visit.

Govt to declare Satapada a dolphin sanctuary. Bhubaneswar, India

The State Government has decided to declare Satapada in Chilika, a dolphin sanctuary and ban plying of motorised boats in this part of the lake.

A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting in the Secretariat on Tuesday presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. High mortality rate of dolphins, the major tourist attraction to Satapada, has been cause of worry for the Government.

The number of Irrawady dolphins at Satapada is estimated to be more than 100. However, the mortality rate has crossed 10 per year. Plying of motorised boats and large fishing nets are stated to be the reasons behind the death of these mammals.

Only traditional boats will be allowed in that part of the Chilika lake, which will be declared a dolphin sanctuary. The boatmen will be made aware about the protection of dolphins. Roads to villages near Chilika will also be repaired and improved.

The Chief Minister directed the Tourism Department to prepare a package for Chilika. A team comprising Director, Tourism, Chief Executive of the Chilika Development Authority (CDA) and collectors of the districts concerned will prepare the package.

Among others, Chief Secretary Subas Pani, Agriculture Development Commissioner R N Bohidar, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Bijay Kumar Patnaik, Principal Secretary in the Revenue Department T K Mishra, Principal Secretary in the Forest and Environment Department S P Nanda;

Principal Secretary in the Commerce and Transport Department Rajalakshmi, Tourism Secretary Ashok Kumar Tripathy, Secretary in the Fisheries Department Benugopal Sharma and Chief Executive of CDA Ajit Kumar Tripathy attended.

Source: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp

Dolphin research goes hi-tech

Hydrophones on mobile platforms will be used for the first time in the Chilika lake to study the behaviour of Irrawaddy dolphins.

The scientific community is still data deficient regarding habits and habitat of Irrawaddy dolphins. The Chilika lake is estimated to be having 135 dolphins of this endangered species. The Chilika Development Authority (CDA) has joined hands with University of Tokyo and IIT, New Delhi, for long-term multidisciplinary research on these aquatic mammals through modern equipments. Last year a hydrophone was used in the lake to record the behavioural pattern of the dolphins. But it was used on fixed platforms, which restricted its scope of use.

Learning from the past experiences, the team of scientists involved in the project made innovations this year. Speaking to The Hindu, R. Bahl of IIT, Delhi and T. Ura of University of Tokyo, have said that with the help of CDA they have designed a special float with a large hole in the middle with anchorage facility to lower the instruments into water anywhere in the lake. The float will have the hydrophone, its computer, a wireless communication system to transfer data to base station. Prof. Bahl has said now the data collected by the hydrophone will be mostly processed by the computer on the float itself and sent to the base station at Satapada on the coast directly. “This data will be available directly on the Internet for the researchers involved in the project who are at far off places.” The float will also have web-cams to capture under and over water movements of dolphins.

Source: http://www.hindu.com