Chilika Lake & Satapada

History & legend

Chilika is a 1,100 sq km brackish lagoon formed some 6,000 years ago as the Bay of Bengal's coastline shifted; Ptolemy's 2nd-century Geographia and Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang describe it as a major port from which Kalinga sailors traded with Southeast Asia. It was India's first Ramsar Wetland of International Importance (1981), was placed on the Montreux Record in 1993 when siltation threatened it, and was removed in 2002 after a new sea mouth restored its ecology — the only wetland in Asia to be delisted. Satapada ('seven villages') is the home of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin population, roughly 150 animals, the largest in the world.