Bhitarkanika Mangroves is a

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

wetland in

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

, India, covering an area of in the

Brahmani River The Brahmani is a major seasonal river in the Odisha state of eastern India. The Brahmani is formed by the confluence of the Sankh and South Koel rivers, and flows through the districts of Sundargarh, Deogarh, Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, ...

and Baitarani River deltas.

History

The Bhitarkanika Mangroves were

zamindari A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous Indian feudalism, feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian language, Persian was the offi ...

forests until 1952, when the government of Odisha abolished the zamindari system, and put the zamindari forests in the control of the state forest department. In 1975, an area of was declared the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary. The core area of the sanctuary, with an area of , was declared Bhitarkanika National Park in September 1998. The Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife Sanctuary, which bounds the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary to the east, was created in September 1997, and encompasses Gahirmatha Beach and an adjacent portion of the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

. Bhitarkanika Mangroves were designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2002.

Flora and fauna

About 62

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

occur in the Bhitarkanika Mangroves, including ''

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

'', '' Bruguiera'', '' Heritiera'' and '' Rhizophora''.

Reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s present in the mangroves include

saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats, brackish wetlands and freshwater rivers from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaland to northern Australia and Micronesia. It ha ...

king cobra The king cobra (''Ophiophagus hannah'') is a species complex of snakes Endemism, endemic to Asia. With an average of and a record length of , it is the world's longest venomous snake and among the heaviest. Under the genus ''Ophiophagus'', i ...

Indian python The Indian python (''Python molurus'') is a large Pythonidae, python species native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is also known by the common names black-tailed python, Indian rock python, ...

and water monitor. Between August 2004 and December 2006, 263

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

species were recorded, encompassing 147 resident and 99 migrant species. A heronry encloses about , where 11,287 nests were counted in 2006.

Olive ridley turtle The olive ridley sea turtle (''Lepidochelys olivacea''), also known commonly as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Cheloniidae. The species is the second-smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in t ...

s arrive in January to March for nesting at

Gahirmatha Beach Gahirmatha Beach () is a beach in Kendrapara district of the Indian state of Odisha. The beach separates the Bhitarkanika Mangroves from the Bay of Bengal and is the world's most important nesting beach for olive ridley, olive ridley sea turtles. ...

. An average of 240,000 nests per season was estimated between 1976 and 1996. Up to 80,000 turtles were captured every year until 1982. Since 1983, collecting and marketing turtles and their eggs has been banned.

References

External links

Bhitarkanika.org

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080408234233/http://www.wildlifetimes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=295 Bhitarkanika Trip report - Wildlife Times
Bhitarakanika : Tourists Place in Odisha

YouTube Video
{{Ramsar sites in India Mangrove ecoregions Ecoregions of India Environment of Odisha Forests of Odisha Forests of India Wildlife sanctuaries in Odisha Western Indo-Pacific Wetlands of India Ramsar sites in India Indomalayan ecoregions Tourism in Odisha

History

Flora and fauna

See also

References

External links