Bhubaneswar hosted the 1st Chandaka Green Marathon on the occasion of the 72nd Wildlife Week, using the run to spotlight the Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary adjoining the city. Wildlife Week is observed annually during the first week of October. The event drew attention to urban wildlife conservation and the pressure on forest patches near expanding cities. Chandaka-Dampara is Odisha's only elephant reserve located inside a state capital.

Wildlife Week (October 2–8) was instituted in 1952 by India's government to build public awareness about wildlife conservation — making the 2024 edition the 72nd. The Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhubaneswar is a rare example of a protected area embedded within a rapidly urbanising landscape. It is home to elephants, leopards, and spotted deer and serves as a critical green corridor, though encroachment and human-elephant conflict remain persistent threats.

For exam purposes, this event unlocks two testable static layers. First, the governance layer: wildlife sanctuaries are declared under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (WPA), and the nodal authority is the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The WPA distinguishes between National Parks (higher protection, no human activity) and Wildlife Sanctuaries (limited human activity permitted). Second, the ecological layer: urban wildlife reserves face a unique set of pressures — habitat fragmentation, corridor disruption, and light/noise pollution — that differ from pressures on remote protected areas. The elephant population in Odisha falls under Project Elephant (launched 1992), and Chandaka-Dampara is designated an Elephant Reserve. India currently has 33 Elephant Reserves. Understanding the hierarchy — Elephant Reserve vs Wildlife Sanctuary vs National Park — is exactly the kind of classification the UPSC examiner tests.