Currently, this area along with the national park is being protected by the Nepali Army
The Nepali Army ( ne, नेपाली सेना, translit=Nēpālī Sēnā), technically the Gorkhali Army ( ne, गोरखाली सेना, translit=Gōrakhālī Sēnā, label=none; see ''Gorkhas''), is the land service branch ...
.
Features
Rara Lake lies at an elevation of , has a water surface of , a maximum depth of , is long and wide. It drains into the Mugu Karnali River via the Nijar River. Its water quality is characterized by high pH,
conductivity and total
hardness
In materials science, hardness (antonym: softness) is a measure of the resistance to localized plastic deformation induced by either mechanical indentation or abrasion. In general, different materials differ in their hardness; for example har ...
. It has been classified as
oligotrophic
An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates o ...
as it is slightly
polluted
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
.
The lake changes its colour up to 5 times a day depending on the climate.
Rara Lake is surrounded by thickly forested hills named Chuchemara Danda at 4,087 meters and Murma at 3630m. Behind the hills, the beautiful view of Saipal Mountain of Himalayan Range can be seen from the lake. One revolution of the lake by foot takes almost five hours.
During, summer season, birds as far as Siberia can be found migrating to this area.
Socio-cultural and religious values
The main occupation of the people living around the area is agriculture. People also rear goats and extract medicinal herbs and sell them for their living. Thakur society is dominant in the community. Thakur Baba’s Temple is situated in the southeast corner of the lake. Local people believe that the god Thakur shot an arrow to open the passage of the lake reducing the damage caused by flooding.
Flora and fauna
Rara Lake, being surrounded by Rara National Park, has unique floral and faunal importance with rare and vulnerable species. The park was established in 1976 to preserve the beauty of the lake and protect it from sedimentation and adverse human activities. The Park flora consists of 1074 species, of which 16 are endemic to Nepal; the fauna includes 51 species of mammals and 214 species of birds. The hills surrounding the lake is covered with coniferous forest like Himalayan cypress, West Himalayan Spruce, Black Juniper and Oak . The national flower of the country Rhododendron can also be found here.
The lake holds three
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
fish species Nepalese snowtrout (''
Schizothorax macrophthalmus''), (''
S. nepalensis'') and the Rara snowtrout ''(
S. raraensis'') and one endemic frog, Rara Lake frog (''
Nanorana rarica''). Rara snowtrout ''(
S. raraensis''), is the fish recorded only in this lake.
236 different species of birds can be found in the lake.
Winter visitor water birds such as gadwall (''
Anas strepera''), mallard (''
Anas platyrhynchos
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argen ...
''), northern shoveler (''
Anas clypeata
The northern shoveler (; ''Spatula clypeata''), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Euro ...
''), common teal (''
Anas crecca''), tufted duck (''
Aythya fuligula''), common golden eye (''
Bucephala clangula''), common merganser (''
Mergus merganser''), common coot (''
Fulica atra''), and solitary snipe (''
Gallinago solitaria'') reside and rest at this lake.
Climate
Summer is quite pleasant but winter is cold. The best visiting time to the lake is September/October and April to May. From December to March, the temperatures go low below the freezing point, and heavy snowfall occur up to one meter, blocking the way to the lake. April to June is warm in this region.
Monsoon season between the months of July to October. The average rainfall during the ten-year period 1994–2003 was . The surface temperature of the lake was found to be and was visible below .
Transport
Even though the lake does not have connection to the national road network, there are two ways to reach Rara Lake- airways and roadways. Roadways, it takes four days to reach Rara from Kathmandu through the Karnali Highway and takes up to three days from the nearest town
Jumla through means of trekking. From,
Nepalgunj there is two ways to reach the lake, one is by following the salt route to Humla and another following a number of trails through
Dolpo region. Through air, the nearest airport to the Rara lake is
Talcha Airport in
Mugu and
Jumla Airport in
Jumla. There is no direct air service from Kathmandu to
Mugu. Talcha can be reached from air only by getting down from Kathmandu to
Nepalgunj or
Surkhet. Rara Lake is mainly served by
Talcha Airport, which is 4 km east of the lake.
Nepal Airlines,
Sita Air ,
Summit Air, and
Tara Air
Tara Air Pvt. Ltd. is an airline headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines. Tara Air was formed in 2009 using aircraft from the Yeti Airlines fleet and is based at Tribhuvan International Airport, with a secondary ...
operate flights to both
Talcha Airport and
Jumla Airport from
Nepalgunj Airport. It takes approx. 3 hours to reach Rara Lake from
Talcha Airport on foot.
Apart from this, a public bus also runs from
Surkhet to
Mugu headquarter
Gamgadhi
Gamgadhi is the headquarters of Mugu District in the Karnali Zone of northern Nepal. It lies in province 6 of the seven provinces of Nepal.
Media
To Promote local culture Gamgadhi has one FM radio station Radio Mugu - 107.4 MHz Which is a ...
.
It is possible to reach from Surkhet through the
Karnali Highway to
Manma in
Kalikot and
Badki in
Jumla by road. Rara can be reached after about 3 hours of walking from
Badki by foot.
Environmental issues
Due to over-grazing and defecation, the national park conservation officers are facing a challenge to preserve the lake. Local people are found cutting timber wood and fuel wood, which is a problem for conservation of Rara. Also during festivals visitors and local people produce a lot of wastage causing water pollution.
Rara has the potential of becoming the next major place for tourists to visit. During 1997–1998, the number of tourists visiting to this place was found to be 560, but in 2007 it decreased to 87 individuals.
See also
References
External links
www.rara-lake.comFlickr : Rara Lake
{{Authority control
Rara
Mugu District
Karnali Province
Lakes of Nepal