Bhubaneswar, Jun 25 : Chilika Development Authority (CDA) today launched a Report card System to assess the health of the eco system in Chilika,through a fullfledged monitoring system.

CDA Chief Executive Ajit Patnaik said Chilika is the first lake in Asia to develop the report card system for monitoring the health of the eco system.

Mr Patnaik said the Small Scale Funding (SSF) of the UNEP has sanctioned 1,18,000 Dollar for developing the card system project.

Under the project the entire lake and its outer channel would be divided into different ecological zones. The monitoring data including the water quality, sediment, macrophytes and biota would be generated to a scoring system.

The eco system health card would very comprehensively indicate the health of the ecosystem of each zone and the lake as a whole. This would also guide the management actions.

Institute of Ocean Management (IOM), Anna University, Chennai and the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), India have been identified as knowledge partners which would be reviewed by an expert group periodically.

The project would define basic basic indicators and values to ascertain the health of the lake and rivers discharged into it.

The role of ricer catchments and fresh water nutrient flushing into the lake, assessment of biochemcials, estimation of ovrall waterquality and coatsal water quality in the adjacent Bay of Bengal would be monitored, Mr Patnaik said. (UNI)

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CDA launches Report Card system for Chilka Lake