Chilka Lake

Chilika's waters connected the Odisha coast with inland settlements and the Bay of Bengal, giving the lagoon a long maritime history. A tenth-century account in the Brahmanda Purana described it as a commercial centre and shelter for ships sailing towards Java, Malaya, Sri Lanka and China. Manikapatna on the outer channel also preserves traces of a port engaged with eastern trade.

The annual Bali Yatra festival recalls this heritage of overseas voyages. Yet the physical entrance to the sea repeatedly changed. Silt accumulated, the opening shifted and sometimes closed, forcing fishermen to cut a passage in order to reach fishing grounds. The mouth was one and a half kilometres wide in 1780, but only half that width forty years later.

Political invasion also used the coastal corridor. In British forces entered along the shores, reached Puri and occupied Odisha with Fateh Muhammed's assistance. The lagoon's history therefore combined commerce and fishing with changing channels whose accessibility mattered to both livelihoods and military movement.