Berhampur: After the bird census, the Chilika wildlife division is gearing up to conduct a three-day annual dolphin census in the lake from Monday. A day-long training session for enumerators was conducted by scientists of Chilika Development Authority (CDA) at Barkul on Sunday.
Around 140 participants, including retired govt officers, researchers, students and experts from different organisations, including from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), will take part in the exercise to be conducted by the wildlife division in association with Chilika Development Authority.
“A total of 18 groups will be involved in the enumeration of dolphins. Each group consists of five to eight persons, including the experts,” said Amlan Nayak, divisional forest officer (DFO), Chilika.
They will be equipped with Chilika’s map, binoculars, spotting scopes, GPS, notebooks, among others, he said. The DFO said they have also requested boat association members not to operate their boats during the census, and they have agreed to extend their cooperation.
Last year, the dolphin census data was not released by the wildlife wing.
The census conducted in 2023 revealed the lake had 173 dolphins of two species — Irrawaddy (154) and bottlenose (19).