Mangalajodi, a fishing village in the marshy shores northeast of Chilka Lake in Odisha, is an ornithologist’s paradise with over 300 resident and migratory bird species. However, till the turn of the century it had the dubious distinction of being called ‘the village of poachers’. It even had its own version of the sandalwood brigand Veerappan who trapped, poisoned and shot birds flocking to this shallow, fish-rich wetland, which spreads across 1,100 sqkm during the monsoon.

Passing trains would halt at the village as baskets of dead birds were loaded for neighbouring markets. Mothers would order children to “go get a bird for dinner tonight”. Today, the poachers have turned protectors, and the villagers have become stakeholders in the Mangalajodi Ecotourism Trust. They ply boats and work as guides for the more than 1,000 tourists arriving at the lagoon during peak winter, when the bird count soars to 300,000; to compare, there were not more than 5,000 birds in 2000, when poaching was rife.

Trained by the Bombay Natural History Society and the Chilka Development Authority, the local guides can identify the myriad birds flitting around the tall nodda grass. Local lads, meanwhile, patrol the shores to keep miscreants at bay and alert the Forest Department. They also clean and maintain the four ecotourism cottages and two dormitories run by the trust, and cook for the guests. Micro-enterprises such as taxi services and internet cafes have come up in the village, which earned the RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) Earth Hero Award in 2012 and was declared runner-up for the 2014 Biodiversity Award and 2010 TOFT Wildlife Tourism Award. The experience of flying to the Andamans and metros to be feted during the awards has reinforced the young villagers’ determination to put Mangalajodi on the world bird-watching map.

Nilanjan Prasad Behera, the first president of the trust, recalls the revulsion he felt as a college student when he went to collect a bird for the evening meal and found it gasping for breath. That very night he had turned a conservationist and tried converting others in the village too. A local NGO, Wild Orissa, also had a similar mission. The quest began for livelihood sources alternative to poaching, and in 2010 the RBS Foundation stepped in under a partnership with Indian Grameen Services to launch community-owned ecotourism. The trust has 70 villagers, of whom ten — including two women — are on the governing body. The six boats belong to the trust, and the 10 boatmen and six guides are its representatives but get to keep the monthly earnings of ₹6,000 to ₹7,000. During the off-season they work as masons and agriculturists or make nets and repair boats.

Nearly 40 per cent of the revenue generated by ecotourism goes to the villagers, 70 households have benefitted directly and another 400 have gained from the lake’s improved biodiversity. Villagers catch prawns and fish in demarcated zones.

Shashanka Sekhar Dash of Indian Grameen Services recalls that in 2008 the RBS Foundation brought solar lanterns to the electricity-deprived village. An exhibition and sale of photographs of Mangalajodi’s birdlife helped buy the lanterns. The trust also provided water filters to seven schools and plans to construct toilets under the Indira Awaz Yojana scheme. Currently only 15-20 houses in the village have latrines.

With humans and nature in perfect harmony, several migratory birds like the spot-billed ducks, lesser whistling teal and lesser whistling duck have turned residents. The western reef egret was seen here after 15 years. Other rare birds sighted include the painted snipe, black bittern, goliath heron, pacific golden plover and the oriental white ibis. Flocks of the large bar-headed geese take to the air with their distinctive call.

It’s an avian paradise and the challenge is to safeguard it from the excesses of tourism economics.

The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist

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