Rara Lake also known as Mahendra Lake is the largest

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does includ ...

lake in the

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

ese

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over list ...

. It is the main feature of

Rara National Park Rara National Park is a protected area in the Himalayas of Nepal and was established in 1976. Covering an area of in the Mugu and Jumla districts, it is the country's smallest national park. Its main feature is Rara Lake at an altitude of . T ...

, located in Jumla and

Mugu District Mugu District ( ne, मुगु जिल्ला ), a part of Karnali Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Gamgadhi as its district headquarters, covers an area of and had a population (2011) of 55,286. ...

s of

Karnali Province Karnali Province ( ne, कर्णाली प्रदेश) is one of the seven federal provinces of Nepal formed by the new constitution which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The total area of the province is covering 18.97% of the cou ...

. Rara National Park stretches over .

History

Rara Lake was included as part of Rara National Park in 1976. In 1976, citizens of the two villages Chapra and Rara were resettled to Nepalgunj. In September 2007, it was declared as a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

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.

References

External links

www.rara-lake.comFlickr : Rara Lake
{{Authority control Rara Mugu District Karnali Province Lakes of Nepal