Many travel blogs share highly inaccurate details about Hukitola Island. Some websites claim you can go swimming and see coral reefs here. Others tell you to take a boat from Chandipur Beach. That is completely wrong—Chandipur is over 150 kilometers away in the wrong place! Don’t believe those sites. The internet is full of fake travel advice.
The real Hukitola is a wild, empty island made of mud and sand. It sits deep inside swampy rivers. There are no roads, no tourist hotels, and absolutely no coral reefs. Visiting this historic island takes a lot of planning. You can’t just show up. You must check the daily water tides, find a local fishing boat captain, and buy a legal forest office pass before you go.
This guide gives you the true, real-world facts. Read this so you do not get stuck in deep river mud when the water drops.
Where is Hukitola?
Hukitola is in Odisha, way out in the Kendrapara district. Think of a massive pile of sand and river mud sitting right where the delta hits the open sea—that is the island. Zero people live out there. It is just miles and miles of wild, messy mangrove trees.
The water is half river and half ocean. It is also lined with muddy banks, which are bordered by thick mangrove trees. My best advice? Do not get out of the boat. The river currents are fast and the mud is sticky.
How to Reach Hukitola Island: Boat Routes & Jetties
Forget about driving or walking here. Hukitola is a true island, so your only choice is crossing the water on a rented wooden fishing motorboat. Around the docks, locals call these specific boats a desi danga.
To track down a captain, you need to head to one of two different river docks on the coast.
1. The Jamboo Jetty Route
Jamboo village is a small fishing hub about 50 kilometers east of Kendrapara town. This is your absolute best bet because it has the most active fishermen. To get there, just drive from Kendrapara town straight through the Mahakalapara area. Keep following the main road until you hit the riverbank at Jamboo.
Once you see the water, walk right up to the guys by the boats and start talking about a price. Make sure you firmly agree on a round-trip rate before you even put a foot on the wood planks. The actual boat ride takes anywhere from 1 to 1.5 hours each way. First, you will cruise through tight, winding river paths with thick mangrove trees crowding both sides. Then, the trees suddenly disappear and the water opens up into a massive, windy bay near the island.
2. The Kharinasi Jetty Route
Your second choice is a village called Kharinasi. This dock sits directly across the water from Batighar village, which is famous for the old British lighthouse built on India’s east coast.
The river delta view from Kharinasi is incredibly beautiful. However, finding an available boat here is a total pain. Do not waste your time with this dock unless you are actively trying to see both the old lighthouse and Hukitola on the exact same day.
Where to Stay Near Hukitola Island (No Camping Allowed)
Let’s be completely honest: overnight stays are impossible on Hukitola Island. There are zero hotels, guest houses, or campsites out there. If you see a website talking about a fancy “Hukitola Resort,” close the tab because it is a total online scam. The island is a strict wildlife sanctuary, and the forest guards will force everyone to leave before the sun goes down. Since you have to sleep on the mainland, you have two real choices depending on what you like:
Hotels in Kendrapara Town
If you want a clean room, good food, and cold AC, go straight to Kendrapara town. Book a room at Binayak Palace Premium. It is a modern, safe hotel, and it takes about 45 minutes to drive from there to the Jamboo docks in the morning.
Jungle Resorts Near Bhitarkanika
If you want a wild jungle trip instead, head a bit north toward the Bhitarkanika forests. Look up places like Jungle Avengers Resort or KanikaSundari Homestay. You will sleep in a basic wooden cabin right next to the river channels where the local tour boats travel.
The Big Problem: Watch the Tides
The daily tide schedule can completely ruin this trip. Hukitola is essentially a low-lying silt deposit shaped by the river delta. Because of that, the water channels around the island are incredibly shallow. When low tide hits, the water entirely vanishes. You are left looking at miles of thick, sticky mud.
If the water drops while you are out on the river, your boat will get stuck fast. Think about sitting there trapped in the hot sun for hours waiting for the ocean water to come back up. It is miserable.
Do not trust your captain blindly on this. Before you leave the mainland dock, ask him exactly what time the high tide and low tide happen that day. You must leave the mainland while the water is still rising. More importantly, get away from Hukitola before the paths turn back into a giant mud pit.
Forest Department Permits for Hukitola Island
Visiting requires more than just jumping on a boat and showing up at Hukitola Island whenever you want. The island is a strict park for wild animals. Because of that, the government makes everyone get a paper pass before leaving the mainland. If you forget this step, your boat captain will refuse to start the engine. It is a big problem if you forget. To get the pass, you must stop by the local Forest Office before you go to the docks. You can find the office in the Mahakalapara area or the Jamboo area. Walk in with everyone’s government photo ID card. A passport or Voter ID card is fine. Expect some boring paperwork here.
The officers have to write down all your names by hand. They also must look at your boat’s registration papers. Plus, you have to pay a small entry fee in cash. It is just a slow, annoying government chore you have to do before you can get on the water. Check your bags before you walk into that office. The guards enforce very rigid rules about trash. They will instantly take away your plastic bags, alcohol bottles, or camping tents. Leave that stuff at your hotel or on the mainland. If you bring it, you will lose it.
History of the Hukitola Storehouse
There is only one big building on this empty island. It is a giant British storehouse built between 1866 and 1867. Don’t go out there expecting a fancy palace or a big fort. It is just a massive, old stone warehouse born out of a truly terrible tragedy.
The Great Famine
A massive drought hit the area in 1866 and caused the Great Orissa Famine. It was horrific. About one-third of the whole population died from hunger. A British superintendent named John Hokkey Walker wanted to stop that nightmare from ever happening again, so he designed a giant food station right on this lonely strip of land.
The island actually got its name from him. Local people called the area “Hokkey Tolha,” which slowly turned into Hukitola over the years. Large ocean ships used to bring rice all the way from Burma, but the water was too shallow for them. Smaller river boats had to go out, collect the grain, and pack the rice inside this thick warehouse before anyone moved it to the starving people on the mainland.
Inside the Stone Structure
The warehouse is huge—covering over 7,000 square feet—and workers built it entirely out of heavy stones they took from the old ruins of Barabati Fort in Cuttack. Imagine hauling those giant rock blocks on boats for over a hundred miles down into the river delta.
Inside the building, six large rooms connect to each other in a way that lets the ocean wind blow straight through the structure. That breeze is the only reason the stored rice didn’t rot in the hot weather, because the windows are placed perfectly to catch the air. If you walk up to the front, you will see a long porch held up by nine heavy masonry arches. The outside walls are nearly three feet thick. They built them that heavy for pure strength, which makes sense when you see how brutal the weather gets out here.
The Rainwater Harvesting System
It is wild to think about, but Walker actually saved thousands of gallons of pure drinking water for the workers using nothing but the building’s roof.
Fresh drinking water was a massive nightmare out there because Hukitola is completely surrounded by useless, salty ocean water. To fix that issue, the giant roof was built to tilt downward toward the front porch. When the heavy summer monsoon rains hit the island, the water rushed down the slopes, hit hidden paths, and shot straight into iron pipes. Those pipes dumped the rainwater directly into two large subterranean cisterns on both ends of the porch. The wells were 12 feet deep and lined with heavy stone to keep the salty sea water from leaking in. It worked perfectly. It is easily the coolest piece of engineering on the whole island.
Best Time to Visit Hukitola Island
The weather changes completely during the year, so you really need to time this trip right or the whole day will turn into a total mess.
Figuring Out the Timing
October to March is easily the best window to go because the weather is cool, the sun feels great, and the water stays calm enough to spot thousands of beautiful migratory birds around the mangroves. Summer is rough. April and May just get incredibly hot and sticky—pack a massive hat and tons of water if you actually try to brave that heat. Do not even bother with June through September. That is monsoon season, which means dangerous floods, heavy storms, and rough coastal swells that make the river a death trap. The forest office will flat out refuse to give you a boat pass anyway.
You also need to understand that this is a full-day commitment. The official opening hours of the old building (10:00 AM to 5:00 PM) matter way less than the actual water levels.
Get to the Jamboo boat dock by 8:00 AM. Seriously, don’t sleep in. Arriving that early gives you enough time to clear the forest office permits and argue with the fishermen about the boat price, but the main reason is to hit the water before the afternoon low tide leaves you stranded out on exposed, sun-baked mudflats. If that water drops, you are stuck for hours in the baking sun. You need to be completely back on the mainland before dark.
Packing Your Bags Like a Local
Do not expect a single shop, food stall, toilet, or emergency service once you leave the mainland dock. You are completely on your own out there.
Leave the sandals at home and wear real closed shoes or old sneakers. Flip-flops will absolutely destroy your feet during the rough 500-meter walk from the boat landing to the old stone building because the ground is pure mud and full of super sharp grass. Get some heavy bug spray, too—the swampy mangrove forests are crawling with hungry mosquitoes and biting flies, so coat your arms and legs before you even step off the boat.
For food and water, you have to pack way more than you think. There is zero drinking water on the island, meaning you need at least 2 liters for every single person if you don’t want to get sick in the heat. Bring a heavy lunch and snacks that won’t melt or rot inside a hot backpack. You literally cannot buy a single bite of food out there.
Places to Visit Near Hukitola Island
If you travel all the way to the Kendrapara coast, you can easily check out a few other neat spots while you are in the area.
False Point Lighthouse (Batighar)
You can see this old British lighthouse standing tall right across the river from the Kharinasi boat dock. The water paths twisting around the building are awesome for photos. Local history says old kings used to hunt in these exact mangrove waters hundreds of years ago. It looks wild against the empty water.
Wildlife in the Mangrove Forests
The boat ride is basically a free wildlife safari if you keep your eyes open. Winter is the best time because the muddy banks get completely covered in thousands of bright birds looking for food.
Look down at the wet mud, too. The shores are packed with prehistoric horseshoe crabs that look like hard brown army helmets crawling near the water. They live right alongside mudskippers, which are tiny, strange fish that actually walk and skip around on land. Just do not get out of the boat to get a closer look. Massive saltwater crocodiles love to sleep on these exact same mudbanks, and the river currents are incredibly fast anyway.
If you want to see more of Kendrapara’s unique coastal wildlife, you can combine your trip with an excursion to nearby Gahirmatha Beach to see the sea turtle nesting windows, which requires a similar forest department entry permit.
Important Safety Tips for Hukitola Island
Hukitola is a beautiful place, but it is totally remote. Things can go wrong fast if you don’t pay attention.
Stay completely inside the boat until the captain fully parks at the dry landing spot. Do not dip your hands or feet in the river because the crocodiles are real. Once you walk into the old stone storehouse, watch your head because some roofs and bricks are still old and weak. Stick to the main open walkways and do not try to climb the walls.
Pack your trash right back out with you, too. The island has zero garbage cans. Any empty water bottles or chip wrappers have to go straight back into your backpack so you can toss them away when you get back to the mainland dock. Also, you have to leave before sunset. There is absolutely no camping allowed on the island. Make sure you have a hotel booked back on the mainland in Kendrapara town before dark hits.
Final Thoughts
Hukitola Island is only worth the trip if you actually enjoy rough, outdoor adventures. Do not go out there expecting a crowded, easy tourist spot with gift shops. It is just a very quiet, incredibly wild place where you can see a giant stone building from the 1800s and escape the regular world for a few hours.
Just make sure you plan the boat trip carefully around the tides and remember to pack your own food and water. If you keep your expectations real and ignore the weird rumors online, it is easily one of the coolest hidden spots you can find on the Odisha coast.
Looking for more off-the-beaten-path travel itineraries and local permit breakdowns? Explore our full collection of Destination Guides to plan your next coastal adventure.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Absolutely not—and it’s highly illegal to try. The island is a strictly protected wildlife sanctuary with zero hotels, campsites, or basic amenities. By the way, if you stumble across a travel site trying to sell you a booking at a ‘Hukitola Island Resort,’ close the tab immediately because it’s a completely fabricated listing. The forest guards make everyone leave before it gets dark, so you have to sleep back on the mainland in Kendrapara town.
There is no ticket office at the docks. You just have to go down to Jamboo or Kharinasi and bargain directly with the local fishermen. Usually, renting a private motorboat will cost you around ₹3,000 to ₹5,000. Just make sure you and the captain clearly agree that the price includes the round trip before you get on the boat, otherwise they might try to charge you extra to bring you back.
Yes, but you really cannot just wing it. Remember that the boat ride is a solid hour and a half each way across deep, open water, so make sure you demand real life jackets for your kids before the captain even starts the motor. There are absolutely zero shops out there, too. You have to bring everything yourself—pack tons of extra snacks, water, wet wipes, and any basic medicine you think you might need.
Absolutely not. It is highly unsafe to dip your toes in the water out there because the river banks around Hukitola are crawling with massive saltwater crocodiles. They look exactly like old floating logs and hide perfectly in the mud until they move. Stay completely inside the boat until your captain has parked directly on dry land.
Be at the Jamboo boat dock by 8:00 AM. You need the morning daylight to sort out your forest pass anyway, but the main reason is the tide. If you time it wrong and the water drops, your boat will get trapped out in thick, sticky river mud for hours in the baking sun.
About the Author: Bijoy Pal doesn’t just copy and paste old travel brochures from the internet. As a digital creator and investigative blogger, they spend their time actually exploring the hidden coastal swamps and historic ruins along the Odisha–West Bengal border to fact-check fake travel sites. They do the real fieldwork so readers get the actual, unpolished truth about these remote places.