A STUDY FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CHILKA LAKE TIDAL INLET, EAST-COAST OF INDIA

Chilka Lake, the largest tidal inlet connected to the Bay of Bengal is hydraulically found poor with little exchange of water between the se a and the Lake. The shorefront of the lake is exposed to a high rate o f littoral drift, one million cubic metre per year. A One year study s howed the migration of the inlet mouth to approximately 500 m northwar d. The Bow of salt water from the sea into the lake as well as into th e Chilka Lake eco-system is severely limited by conditions as follows: reduced inlet cross section associated with lengthening of the inlet channel; extremely low tidal prism as compared to the volume of water in the lake; and the significant fresh water discharge into the lake d uring the monsoon season. The stability criteria based on the ratio of tidal prism and the annual littoral drift shows that the tidal inlet is hydraulically very poor. An artificial opening of a channel about 4 80 m in width dredged to a depth of 10 m is suggested in the paper to increase the tidal prism to about 1.5 x 10(3) m(3). This will consider ably improve the water exchange between the sea and the lake to mainta in the lake eco-system.