Bhitarkanika National Park

As part of our Orissa trip we had been Bhitarkanika, which is one of the largest Mangrove Eco systems in India. The place is on the river delta of Brahmani and Baitarni rivers. It is home to diverse flora and fauna, migratory birds, turtles, and the menacing estuarine crocodiles.

The wetland is divided into 3 protected Areas, namely “Bhitarkanika National Park”, “Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary” and “Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary”.

If lucky one can spot any of salt water crocodile, king cobra, water monitor lizards, marine turtle, kingfisher, wood pecker, horn-bill, bar headed geese, brahmany duck, pintail, white bellied sea eagle, tern, sea gull, waders and a large variety of resident and migratory birds. It supports an amazing 8 varieties of Kingfishers in its habitat.

The best time to visit the place is November to February. We had been here in the month of April and could see few of the birds and other creatures in the area. Khola and Gupti are the two main entry points to the park. Visitors should take entry permit from the Forest Check Gate at Khola and Gupti.

We hired a boat to ferry us in the river system for observing the scenic beauty and the biodiversity resource including basking crocodile, water monitor and spotted deer.

We went around the park in the boat for around 4 hours and visited crocodile breeding area, museum, red crabs, birds and even basking crocodile. Even though off season it was a good experience. In other posts on this I will show you what else I discovered. But,  a tour of this place is must during the peak season.

How to Reach: Entry pints to the park is 160 kms from Bhubaneshwar, 140 kms from Cuttack and 70 kms from Bhadrak. We reached this place from Kendrapara which is at a distance of 35 kms.