Balugaon: Chilika Wildlife Division and Chilika Development Authority (CDA) Sunday began a day-long census of Irrawaddy dolphins in the lake.
A detailed training was provided to the researchers at CDA research centre near Chandraput Saturday to carry out the census. A total of 18 experienced staff from both these departments and other organisations have been deployed for this census operation.
“Each team, comprising four members, is being provided with a boat, a global positioning system (GPS), binocular, walky-talky and other necessary equipment,” divisional forest officer (DFO) Alok Kumar Hota said.
The counting started at 6:00am will continue till 12 noon. The movement of the boat will slow down at certain places where dolphin movement is sighted, Hota added.
Usually, more numbers of dolphins are sighted at Satapada, Janhikuda and from Satapada sea mouth.
Notably, the population of dolphins in Chilika was more than 160 in 2018. However, due to reasons not yet known, the number reduced to 121 in 2019.
PNN