By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, June 20, 2017 : Shedding political differences, Odisha chief minister and the ruling Biju Janata Dal [BJD] president and union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan have joined hands to support UNESCO’s plan of developing Chilika Lake as World Heritage site.

Pradhan on Tuesday in a letter to Patnaik had sought the latter’s support to implement UNESCO’s plan of developing Chilika Lake as World Heritage site in association with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC).

“UNESCO in association with ONGC is planning to support the development of Chilika Lake as UNESCO World Heritage site and enhance the value of Chilika to become a brand conservation linked sustainable development in the state,” the letter said.

Patnaik took to micro-blogging site Twitter to respond to Pradhan’s letter reaffirming commitment to conservation of Chilika lake, tackling climate change & ensuring sustainable development.

Noting he had met Shigeru Aoyagi, Unesco Chief Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka on May 29 and discussed the programmes to conserve and develop the country’s largest coastal lagoon, Pradhan said it and the ONGC are in a process of taking short and long-term measures to conserve Chilika Lake, protect animals and birds, improve the livelihood of fishing community and tourist guides.

“I am writing to you for soliciting your support in taking up various development works in the area,” said Pradhan in his letter, adding that the mentorship and guidance of union forest and environment and culture ministries are also greatly needed in this regard and he would write to these ministries with similar request.

UNESCO has also proposed to set up a world class conservation centre with climate change observatory with state-of-art data and monitoring facilities, he added.