The Dangamal nature camp inside Odisha’s Bhitarkanika National Forest, the country’s second-largest mangrove ecosystem, has added something to its list of attractions – a boat library for children, which is perhaps the first of its kind in India.

The library housed in a stationary boat at Dangamal, the gateway to the forest, threw open its doors on June 5, the World Environment Day, this year.
The boat is stationed at the eco-tourism complex so that children of visitors to Bhitarkanika, which has one of the largest populations of the endangered saltwater crocodiles, as well as students of nearby schools can use the library.