The Shree Jagannath Temple is considered to be an important religious place in India and a temple dedicated to Lord Jagannath, a form of Vishnu-one of the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism. Puri is situated on the eastern coast of India. The present temple was rebuilt from the 10th century onwards, on the site of pre-existing temples in the compound.

Apart from being one of the important religious centers in India, the Jagannath Temple is also famous for its annual Ratha Yatra, or chariot festival, in which the three principal deities of this temple are pulled on huge and elaborately decorated temple cars. In most temples, the icons to be worshipped are made using stone and metals. But this temple is an exception because here, the three principal deities are made using wood and are ceremoniously replaced every twelve or nineteen years by a replica. Moreover, it is one of the Char Dham pilgrimage sites.

The temple was rebuilt in the 12th century by the ruler of the Ganga dynasty named King Anantavarman Chodaganga, who was originally a Shivaite and later on became a Vaishnavite. People believe that many great saints who used to follow Vaishnavism such as Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya, Nimbarkacharya, Vallabhacharya, and Ramananda were closely associated with this temple. There are three principal deities inside this temple- Jagannath, Balabhadra, and Subhadra. The deities are adorned with different clothing and jewels that mainly depend on the changing seasons.

This lake is no less than a dream, occupying the east coast of India, and is the largest brackish Water Lagoon with estuarine character. Moreover, it is also the largest wintering ground for migratory waterfowl found anywhere on the Indian sub-continent. It holds the record of being one of the hotspots of biodiversity in the country, and some rare, vulnerable, and endangered species listed in the IUCN Red List of threatened animals inhabit the lagoon for at least part of their life cycle.

This lake has always been an integral part of the culture and tradition of coastal Odisha. Almost 400 years ago, the saint poet Purshottam Das, a devotee of Lord Jagannath, wrote a poem about Lord Krishna dancing with a milkmaid called Maniki, who had come to sell curds on the banks of the Chilika. Flocks of migratory waterfowl arrive from as far as the Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea, remote parts of Russia, Kirghiz steppes of Mongolia, Central and South East Asia, Ladakh and the Himalayas, to feed and breed in its fertile water.