Cyclone Fani’s Fury Creates Four New Mouths in Odisha’s Chilika Lake

Prelims level : Environment Mains level : Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
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Why in News:

  • The extremely severe cyclone, Fani, has created four new mouths in Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest brackish water lake, connecting to Bay of Bengal.

Details:

  • Chilika lagoon had only two active mouths — the point where it meets the sea before Fani hit the Odisha coast on May
  • Four new mouths have opened due to wave energy with high tidal prism.

Salinity surge

  • While three new mouths have come up between the two functional mouths near Sanpatna and Arakhakuda, a smaller mouth has been noticed on the northern
  • a lot of sea water is entering Chilika Lake.
  • If sea water ingression goes up, fish migration will increase and the biodiversity will get richer. But its long-term impact is something we will have to keep a watch on,
  • Three of the four sectors are more or less marine The rise in salinity will lead to increase in productivity. Chilika Lake is a mixture of saline and fresh water
  • Increase in salinity will not have an impact on Irrawaddy dolphins as they can survive in salinity. Though nesting grounds at Panchakudi and Mangalajodi have been affected, they would be ready to host migratory birds by the time they arrive in Chilika Lake
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