Mangalajodi, Odisha: How an Entire Village Transformed from Poaching Birds to Protecting Them

It was my second morning in the territory of Odisha (recently called Orissa) on India's east coast, and I was skimming along quietly on a rural, wooden paddle boat on the delicate waters of Chilika Lake – India's, and Asia's, biggest saline water lake.

On that warm spring day, I had expected to familiarize myself with the wild flying delights in the marshlands of Mangalajodi, the biggest town on the shores of Chilika. Yet, when the sun was setting over the wetlands, car rental services in jaipur  presently bursting at the seams with bird babble, I had found the most confident story of untamed life preservation in India:

When a town of bird poachers

"It was simple. We got them in a net and bent their necks. Or on the other hand we harmed the little fish in the wetlands, and when the birds ate them, they kicked the bucket a fast passing."

I was making a decent attempt not to wheeze at my aide's words. Furthermore harder, making an effort not to envision dark godwits and wood sandpipers, with turned necks, fit to be cooked.