Bhubaneswar, Dec seven: Nearly 3 lakh winter migratory and resident birds have got hold of Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest briny water laguna set in Odisha, since the center of October, a state life official aforesaid Saturday.

At least 130,000 birds were lynx-eyed at Nalaban Island whereas 1.5 lakh birds were noticed outside the protected space of the lake.

Most of the birds are migratory birds and have return from places as so much because the Caspian, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea, Russia, Mongolia, central and Southeast Asia, Ladakh and also the Himalayas, he said.

At least 156 species of winged guests are noticed on the lake this winter and of them fifty two were native birds. The birds that were lynx-eyed embrace widgeon, Godwit, Shoveller, pin-tailed duck and Tufted Aythya ferina, the official aforesaid.

The 1,000 sq km lake, regarding 100 km from capital Bhubaneswar, is cover the districts of Puri, Khordha and Ganjam on the japanese coast and is home to a number of the biggest congregations of migratory birds within the country.

Every year, a few million migratory birds return to the lake in October and come back in March. an calculable 165 species of birds are found within the lake throughout winter. Of these, 93 species are migratory and 72 residential.

This year, patrolling has been intense at the lake and awareness has been created in villages round the lake on bird conservation. “We have already discovered seventeen camps in villages close to the lake to safeguard the birds from being hunted”, the official aforesaid.