Bhubaneswar, June 20: The state government today reaffirmed its commitment to the conservation of Chilika lake and conveyed its support to the initiatives in this direction. Efforts are on to declare the lake a Unesco World Heritage site.

Yesterday, Union petroleum minister Dharmedra Pradhan wrote to chief minister Naveen Patnaik, seeking his support and co-operation to the joint initiative by the Centre undertaking the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) and Unesco for ecological protection of the Chilika lake and its periphery. Pradhan had tweeted: "Wrote to Odisha CM @Naveen_Odisha ji seeking his cooperation in preserving the ecosystem around Chilika Lake, India's largest coastal lagoon."

Naveen tweeted back today: "Thanks for your letter. We reaffirm commitment to conservation of Chilika lake, tackling climate change & ensuring sustainable development."

The Chilika lake is a brackish water lagoon, spread over 3,560sqkm. It is the largest coastal lagoon in India and the second largest lagoon in the world. In 1981, the lake had been designated as the first Indian wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

Pradhan, in his letter to the chief minister, said the ONGC in partnership with Unesco had developed long-term and short-term plans for conservation of the lagoon, a plan to protect the animals and birds, improve the livelihood of the fishing community, tourist guides and local population, direct income generation and welfare activities.

"Chilika's conservation and development will be possible with proper participation and co-operation," said Pradhan. The minister said he had sought support from the ministry of environment, forest and climate change and the ministry of culture in the context of nomination and selection of the lake as a Unesco World Heritage site.

On May 29, Pradhan met Shigeru Aoyagi, country head of Unesco, and stressed a holistic view on conservation and protection of the lake and the ecosystem associated with it.

In a related development, the governing body of the state Council of Science and Technology today decided to create five divisions in the council to popularise and promote science and technology in daily life. The five divisions are: (i) agriculture, water, energy and environment (ii) research and development, start-up, innovation and consultancy (iii) science education and communication, intellectual property right and patent (iv) rural technology, transfer of technology and social development and (v) health service, bio-technology and environment.

Each division will have three resource persons.