Chilika lake is a brackish water lagoon, spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Odisha on the east coast of India, at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal, covering an area of over 1,100 Square kilometre. It is the largest coastal lagoon in India and the second largest lagoon in the world. It is the largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian sub-continent. The lake is home to a number of threatened species of plants and animals. The Chilika Lagoon, a Ramsar Site of international importance is one of the finest repositories of aquatic biodiversity and a source of fishery, sustaining the livelihood and nutritional need of about 2 lakh local fisher folk. Chilika, once an inexhaustible store of fish, is dying too. Its size is being reduced due to silting and blockage of catchment. Illegal gheris or prawn farm enclosures are adding to this and also to pollution. Motorised tourist boats are also contributing their share to pollution. Zero-nets (mosquito nets) are destroying fish eggs, seedlings and juveniles. The small and traditional fishing communities of Chilika are the primary victims. Migrating out from their ancestral livelihood occupation and habitats has become a general trend. Odisha Matsyajibi Forum [OMF] decided, in its executive committee meeting on July 17, 2016, to hold extensive meetings in the fishing villages around Chilika to get at the gravity of the situation and help the fishing communities develop a common understanding and platform. The adhoc committee of the Chilika Matsajibi Federation, a unit of newly formed Odisha Matsyajibi Federation (OMF) decided in its meeting at Balugaon on 9th August 2016 to organize district level meetings of the fishing communities of Chilika at all the three adjoining districts on 4th September (at Gopinathpur village, P.S. Brahmagiri, Dist. Puri); 5th September (at Gajapati Nagar village, P.S. & Dist. Ganjam) and 6th September (at Balia-bandha, P.S. & Dist. Khurda) Due to deep depression in Bay of Bengal heavy rain lashed Cilika area for a week and the meetings were badly affected. It was almost impossible for normal movement. Yet the team of 3 (three) State leaders (Narayan Haldar, Krushna Chandra Swain & Chittaranjan Barik) and 2 (two) of Chilika leaders (Sanyasi Pradhan & Pratap Chihnara) along with Soumen Ray, veteran trade union leader, reached the venue at Gopinathpur, P.S. Brahmagiri, District Puri in due time. 18 (eighteen) fishermen from Gopinathpur and adjacent villages joined in the meeting. Next day’s meeting was in Gajapati Nagar village in Ganjam district. The day was of famous Ganesh Chaturthy – the Lord Ganapati Puja Day. All over Odisha the people observe the day. Obviously the villagers were busy with worship of the God, for which only a small section of leaders from the villages of 12000(twelve thousand) families of fishworkers came to discuss the issues. The OMF team stayed at Bhusandpur. They went to meet the fishworkers at Jagannathpur Jetty; where they met more than 30 (thirty) fishworkers. They discussed several issues for around 2(two) hours under the leadership of Purna Chandra Behera and Agawat Behera. That was a multi-ethnic village. All inhabitants were fishworkers by profession. In each meeting the fishers raised the issues of extensive prawn culture enclosures that came up primarily as investments of non-fisher communities, the drying and silting up of Chilika, the fine mesh nets wrecking havoc to the seedlings and juveniles, the intrusion of non-fishing communities in large number in Chilika fisheries with government sanction. The union leaders explained the need to get organised in union and fight for livelihood and tenure rights. They said that while cooperatives aim primarily at achieving economic betterment through better production and business activities, unions are primarily meant to defend and achieve rights. The participant fishers resolved to carry the message of the union to the rank and file fish workers of each and every village around Chilika and build up the union in earnest.