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Concept
Badkhal Lake
Summary
Badkhal Lake is a natural lake situated in Badkhal village near Faridabad, in the Indian state of Haryana, about 32 kilometers from the national capital of Delhi. Fringed by the hills of the Aravalli Range, this was a man-made embankment. Owing to unchecked mining in neighbouring areas, the lake began drying up two decades back and is now totally dried up. There are functional Haryana Tourism Corporation restaurants in the vicinity. A flower show is held every spring here. Its name is most probably derived from the Persian word beydakhal, which means free from interference. Close to Badkhal Lake is the Peacock Lake. It is a biodiversity area within the Northern Aravalli leopard wildlife corridor stretching from Sariska Tiger Reserve to Delhi.
Historical places around the lake include the 10th century ancient Surajkund reservoir (15 km north) and Anangpur Dam (16 km north), the similarly dried up Damdama Lake, Tughlaqabad Fort, Adilabad ruins and the Chhatarpur Temple. There are several dozen lakes formed in the abandoned open pit mines in and around the sanctuary. It is contiguous to the seasonal waterfalls in Pali-Dhuaj-Kot villages of Faridabad, the sacred Mangar Bani hill forest and the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary.
The lake was built soon after the country got Independence in 1947 to facilitate water supply to the nearby farms. It was built by constructing a bund between two low-lying Aravalli hills, to trap run-off for irrigation. In 1972, the Government of Haryana built a 30-room resort off the lake, which was a major tourist attraction during the '70s through to the '90s, with boating and other activities. Migratory birds also used to visit the lake.
Construction boom in the National Capital Region drove quarrying and mining in the area at a large scale. As illegal mining and quarrying mushroomed, the downward water flow to the lake was not just obstructed, but aquifers were also damaged. In addition, deforestation and rampant borewell digging in the area owing to urbanisation worsened the situation, leaving the lake high and dry.
Official source
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