Penthakata is a fishing village in Puri. Located at the end of Chakratirtha Road, this is the last fishermen’s colony inside Puri town. Nestled in the northern end of the seabeach this part is away from all the crowd and rush of tourists.
When I went to Puri in 1993 for the first time, I was a kid then. That was our first family trip to a seabeach. I can still remember what a great time we had. We used to collect clamshell for hours. When we got tired we sat on the sand and loved to count swaying fishing boats at the horizon which looked so tiny from the shore.
In the morning, we went out to the beach to see the sunrise and then gathered around a boat that just came back after overnight fishing. While our elders became busy in bargaining prices of the fishes, we liked to see the other kind of marine lives that the fishermen caught accidentally in their fishing nets. I had seen a sea turtle, sea stars, sea anemones, sea oysters, jellyfishes and many more such things there for the first time in my life.
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In recent times when I went to Puri, I really missed those days of clam-shell picking and counting the fishing boats in the morning. So, before my last trip to Puri this year, I was searching for a nearby place where I could see many fishing boats and might get some interesting photographic opportunities as well. When I searched on the internet for a nearby fishing village in Puri I came to know about “Pentakota”. Though I did not get much information about the place or how to go there. So I decided to ask locals about it when I reach Puri.
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After a prolonged walk on the seabeach from Puri Hotel to Hotel Sonar Bangla in two subsequent morning, I hardly found 3-4 fishing boats in the entire stretch. So finally, I asked a shopkeeper near the lighthouse about “Pentakota” and then I came to know that the actual name of that place is “Penthakata”. He told me that as the “Mohona” (Translation: Estuary) is one end of Puri beach, the other end of the beach is “Penthakata”.
First I decided to visit the place alone with my camera. But after lunch when I told it to my family they also wanted to accompany me. So, I hired a battery-operated autorickshaw from Puri Hotel and visited this place on our last day in Puri.
The ride was along the Chakratirtha Road and at the end of it, there was a narrow alley on the right side which took us to the Penthakata beach. The beach was not very clean but it was not the search of cleanliness that drove me to Penthakata either. Rather what I went to see in Penthakata were lying in abundance all along the shore.
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There were hundreds of colourful fishing boats anchored to the beach and many more were sailing back from the sea. Once a boat reached the shore and unloaded all the fishes over the sand, there was an immediate open auction called by a man from the association surrounded by traders and buyers. As soon as a verbal agreement happened, all the fishes were immediately transferred to the trucks waiting in the roadside by local women in large baskets carrying over their heads. And this process gets repeated seamlessly throughout the day until the sun dips down into the sea.
I was happy to explore a hidden fishing village inside the Puri town. Though it was only for a couple of hours this time, I will definitely visit there again during my next trip to Puri. I sincerely hope that another fancy beach resort will not occupy this place in the near future. Rather an endeavour for sustainable tourism with active participation from the local community will help to protect the fishing village of Penthakata.
How to Reach
Penthakata is 5km from Swargadwar in Puri. You can hire an autorickshaw on an hourly basis and reach this place. The best time to go there is in the early morning or in the afternoon when fishing boats return to the shore.
Disclosure
- This article is not about a hidden tourist place in Puri and so, don’t rush to Penthakata on your next trip as if you are going to discover an offbeat tourist destination. Believe me, you will be utterly disappointed.
- This is neither documentation of a ” Fishing Village” where you can see visuals from the daily life of fishermen community or will hear about their lifestyles and expect a social message to be raised.
- Rather if you can relate your childhood with the paragraphs that I wrote above, trust me you will love this place and will pray that this place sustains its originality and simplicity forever.
- And lastly, all the photographs used in this article are taken by me. Please do not copy, store, print or use them without my written permission.
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