Dagara: Rendezvous with Red Crabs

Odisha is one of the littoral states of India with sculptured indented coast-line which captures the imagination of tourist for it’s pastoral and beautiful beaches. Pilgrims pan India mostly persists boisterous and crowded Puri and Gopalpur beaches for fun and frolic throughout the year. Besides these there are picturesque tourists places if we travel towards northern Odisha will come across a district named Balasore which is the rice bowl of the state. From the Balasore station if we traversed towards Kolkata around 64km we will encounter an exotic village on the confluence of the mouth of river Subarnarekha and Bay of Bengal named Dagara. The nearest railway stations are Jaleswar (58km) and Basta(25Km) away from the scenery spot.

The centers of attractions of the beach are red crabs enlisted in IUCN(International Union for conservation nature) red data book as a threatened endangered species. The calm, cool and collective Dagra village attracts tourists throughout the year but mostly in winter seasons. The prolific sandy dunes intermingled with pine trees lure tourists interests and serendipity.

The salubrious surroundings is a nesting and breeding paradise for red crabs. The arthropods seem to be a hallucination for the visitors, the faster you approach them the sooner they will disappear into their tiny holes. Sightseers like to play cat and mouse game with them and love to lose the battle in the end with a relentless simmering smirk.

The merge of the calm Subarnarekha river with the Bay of Bengal not only attracts tourists but bodes well for business with a proposed Kirtania port. The numbers of holidaymakers not on the higher side due to lack of sound infrastructures in terms of transportation, motels, and cuisines, but it definitely can be a tourism destination with a beautiful and bucolic sunset and sunrise with reddish picturesque serenity scenery beyond the horizon and rendezvous with red crabs at a striking distance.