Nalaban and Manglajodi

Chilika Lake from Nalaban Tower 3

In the third week of January I had one of the best birding experiences of my life when I went to Manglajodi and Nalaban in Orissa with friends and fellow birders like Partha Sen, Suranjan Mukherjee, Suman Pal and Subhasish Debgupta. Our friend Arijit Banerjee was supposed to go with us and had organised everything through the head of Chilika Development Authority (CDA), Mr Ajit Patnaik who was our host. However, at the last moment he had to drop out due to some official commitment. 

The journey started from Howrah on Friday night (18th January, 2013) when we boarded the Puri Express. At around 5 in the morning we got down at Bhubaneswar where a Tavera was waiting for us. We went to the forest department's guest house in the city to "freshen up" (essentially meaning rushing to the loo) and then embarked upon the journey. Our immediate destination is Manglajodi where we will go birding till evening. From there we will go to the CDA guest house in Balugaon to spend the night.

Next morning (Sunday) we would go to Nalaban - an island in the middle of Chilika - in a boat. Nalaban is famous for its flamingoes and other migratory birds. The next morning (Monday) we would go back to Manglajodi and from there to Bhubaneswar to catch the overnight train to Calcutta. 

Northern Pintail at Manglajodi