BHUBANESWAR: Chilika, the largest brackish water lagoon of Asia, is home to around 156 Irrawaddy dolphins, revealed the fifth Flora and Fauna survey carried out by the Chilika Development Authority (CDA) on February 1.
CDA officials, however, clarified that the population of the species could be in the range of 155 to 165 as their figure was 161 last year.
“156 dolphins of the species were directly sighted during the monitoring,” stated the survey report released by the CDA on Wednesday.
The Irrawaddy dolphin is one of the flagship species inhabiting the Chilika Lake. The species in India is also protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, CITES (Appendix-l) and IUCN Red List.
Over the years, the lake has become a safe haven for the dolphin species whose distribution range at present has remained limited to Asia, from Chilika to Indonesia.
As per the survey report, a good number of the dolphins has been observed in Rambha bay area along with the outer channel of the lake.
“The dolphins are colonising new areas of the lagoon which gives hope for revival of the population of this endangered mammal,” said CDA Chief Executive Susanta Nanda.
Nanda said the movement of the species to new areas of the lake has been facilitated by removing illegal prawn gherries.
The annual survey was conducted by the CDA using ‘transact method’ followed worldwide to count population of aquatic mammals. Around 28 teams, equipped with binoculars, GPS, Range finder and data recording sheets, carried out the survey from 6am to 12pm on February 1.
The survey also pegged the number of winged guests that visited the lagoon this winter at 10.5 lakh. “Around 10.5 lakh birds of 105 species were found during the survey which compares favourably with the waterbird census conducted by the Chilika Wildlife Division earlier this year in which 10.36 lakh birds of 103 species had been spotted in the lake,” the survey report stated.
Apart from dolphins and waterbirds, this year the survey for the first time observed a group of Eurasian Otter near the bird’s island in the southern sector of the lagoon.
It also found five species of seagrass -- Holodule uninervis, Holodule pinifolia, Halophila ovalis, Halophila ovata, and Halophila beccarii -- over 172 square km area of the lake, an increase of around 3 square km compared to last year.
CDA officials said Chilika has 33 per cent of India’s seagrass area which acts as a carbon sink and facilitates the climate resilience of the Chilika eco-system.