Chandrabhaga Beach - Blue Flag Award

What is Blue Flag Award? Is it for icy mountains or beaches? Who awards the Blue Flag?

Ghumakkad recently visited a Blue Flag certified beach. In fact Asia's first blue flag certified beach in India, it is located in Odisha, 3 kms east of  world famous Konark temple. Called Chandrabhaga Beach, it is indeed a clean beach. Even the cow on the beach seems to follow the discipline as you will notice in the picture story.

What is a Blue Flag?

The iconic Blue Flag is one of the world's most recognized voluntary awards for beaches, marinas, and sustainable boating tourism operators. To qualify for the Blue Flag, stringent environmental, educational, safety, and accessibility criteria must be met and maintained. Readers may refer to the Foundation for Environmental Education for more details. So far more than 5000 beaches, marinas and tourism boats have received the blue flag award across 50 countries.

We are sharing few pictures and videos taken at Chandrabhaga recently.

Our ace photographer K Gopu is seen walking past the beach. The map below shows the location of the beach in the Bay of Bengal.

The veterans and the spouses surf the net while waiting for the coach.

Here is a short video of the scenic Puri-Konark Marine Drive.

Puri and adjoining areas are dotted with numerous temples some very old and some not so old like the one in the picture below.

As we approach Chandrabhaga, our guide narrates the story of Bali-Sugreeva Yudh in the moving coach captured in the video below.

Chandrabhaga beach is neat and clean with facilities for the visitors. It also has various water sports for the adventurous. See the pictures below.

The beach had strong breeze and those who did not venture into the sea, enjoyed the view like the cow in the frame below. 

Here is a 45-sec video of the beach and the panorama.

Remember the advertisement of a chocolate brand 'Never too old for a chocolate'? Another version of the same tag line below!

One of the qualifications to get the Blue Flag for a beach is sustainability of the cleanliness, accessibility etc. Chandrabhaga has harnessed solar power for lighting not only the street lights but also the toilets and kiosks. And the solar system has been installed by a company in Hyderabad! See the picture below.

Happy Veterans posing for a group shot on a windy beach before moving on to Konark Temple.

Those who love water sports, should keep an hour or two for the beach. They will not be disappointed.

The above visit was part of the Golden Jubilee of Navy Veterans of their Commissioning into the Indian Navy (1972-2022). Other stories of the Golden Jubilee Reunion and associated travel can be browsed by clicking the links below:

Sunset Years to Sunrise - Friends Make the Difference

Meet the Navy Veterans- Intro and pandemic positivity video

Veterans' Choice at Puri Odisha

Trees by A Railway Line 

Next time you are planning a beach holiday, look for the Blue Flag. Is the beach blue flag certified?

More stories of our Reunion will follow. Thanks for browsing and stay connected.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with K Gopu/ Secunderabad/ 29th Nov 2022

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