Bhubaneswar: The three-month long campaign to make Kalijai temple in Chilika lake free from polythene will conclude on Tuesday.

A senior official of the Chilika Development Authority (CDA) said that shops using polythene would be penalised following the provisions of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.

The CDA official said that in the temple - spread over 45 acres and built in 1717 - was declared as a plastic-free zone in March this year.

The use of plastic will also be banned in the lake area at a later stage. The CDA hoped that the ban on plastic material in the lake would make the water body a strong contender for Unesco's "world heritage site" tag. The lake - spread over the districts of Puri, Khurda and Ganjam - attracts more than five lakh tourists annually and the footfall remains peak during the winter season.

CDA additional chief executive officer Sasmita Lenka said: "We have conducted several awareness campaigns here over the past three months. We also involved motorboat associations and students of nearby areas in the campaign. On Tuesday, we will undertake a cleanliness drive and the vendors still using plastic will be penalised on spot."

"We will start the drive in the entire lake area and in the first phase the jetties used for boat operations to the lake will be included. We have also asked the boat operators to ask the tourists not to litter the lake. We will form several squads that will patrol the lake area and penalise litterbugs," added Lenka. More than 1,000 boats are operating in the lake.

The plastic ban move will not only curb pollution at the lake, but will also help to save the lives of the Irrawaddy dolphins ( Orcaella brevirostris), a Schedule-I animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

"Tourists hurl polythene bags, bottles and snacks at the dolphins, posing a great threat to their lives. Besides, accumulation of garbage on the bed of the water body also disturbs their habitat," said an official.