Nainital Lake water withdrawal limit cut to 8 million litres per day

From 18 MLD until a few years ago to 12-13 MLD this summer, the administration has been cutting down the daily withdrawal limit from the Nainital lake, considered the lifeline of the small Himalayan hill station.

Published on: Nov 7, 2018, 15:55:33 IST

Hindustan Times, Nainital | By Neeraj Santoshi

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Amid apprehensions that water level may plummet and create a deficit in the Nainital Lake, especially during the summers, the district administration has decided to further curtail the withdrawal limit from the lake to eight million litres water per day (MLD).

From 18 MLD until a few years ago to 12-13 MLD this summer, the administration has been cutting down the daily withdrawal limit from the lake, considered the lifeline of the small Himalayan hill station.

Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan executive engineer Sunil Tiwari said the decision was taken after assessing the water requirement in the coming months and after looking at ways to save the water level from going further down.

“In the winter months, the demand for water is comparatively less, so we decided to curtail the limit. This way we can ensure a balanced water level in the lake. There has to be a balance between water recharge and water withdrawal, otherwise there would be no lake left here,” he said.

Over the years, environmentalists, experts and locals have expressed concern over the increasing stress on Nainital Lake, which is facing a threat from the drying up of its source lake (Sukhatal), construction activities and encroachments on the slopes around it, construction debris, solid waste and other pollutants making their way into the lake waters, siltation and growing human population.

The kidney-shaped Nainital Lake, surrounded by hills, is situated at an elevation of 1,938 metres, with a width of 360 metres and a length of 1,442 metres at present. In 1839, a British sugar trader named P Barron is said to have stumbled upon this Himalayan lake while he was lost in the hills and was trying to find his way back.

Depth of Nainital Lake: Falling down, and down

As per the available records, the depth of the Nainital Lake during the British era was over 27 metres

In 1976-77, Kumaun University’s geography department conducted a study and found the maximum depth to be around 23.7 metres

A report of the Geological Survey of India recorded the depth at 25 metres in 1979

In 2016, the state irrigation department reported that the lake’s depth was around 17.25 metres

Over the last century, the lake’s depth has roughly gone down by 10.15 metres.

According to officials of the irrigation department, the average depth of the lake at present is around 9 to 10 metres although its maximum depth ranges in the 20s

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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