The Wild Orissa held a function on January 20 to commemorate the completion of 17th year of the Sri Sri Mahavir Pakshi Suraksha Samiti of Mangalajodi, which it sponsored to protect the birds in Chilika involving the locals.
On the occasion, the members of the Samiti were presented uniforms and certificates. Resolutions were taken, which emerged from a multi-stakeholder interaction held in 2015 and to work for the future of the world famous bird habitat.
The story of conservation of waterfowl habitat in Mangalajodi is today legendary. An example of an excellent initiative by the Wild Orissa, started way back in the year 1997. The initiative, which involved hardcore poachers and hunters of birds in Chilka, has firmly placed this little known and poaching infested village into a shining example of wildlife conservation!Tourism which was introduced in the year 2002, in a very small manner by Wild Orissa, provisioning for an alternate income generation to the one-time poachers and hunters, has grown manifold, attracting people from all corners of the world. The bird protection committee was given the Pakhi Bandhu Award in the year 2002 and the Biju Patnaik Wildlife Conservation Award by the Government of Odisha in 2007.
What is unique for bird conservation in Mangalajodi is the fact that apart from bird protection, ecotourism was introduced as an alternate income generation for hunters and poachers.