Bandaara Kilhi (literally "State Lake") is one of the two fresh water lakes in

Fuvahmulah Fuvahmulah (Dhivehi language, Dhivehi: ފުވައްމުލައް) is an island (atoll) in the Maldives. It is under Maldives' administrative division of Gnaviyani Atoll, Gnaviyani (or Nyaviyani) Atoll. The island is the second southernmost admini ...

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

. The lake covers about and averages 15 feet deep, which makes it the largest lake by volume in the

accommodating the largest freshwater reserve in the country. Bounded by dense vegetations of mainly

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

Screwpine ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with about 578 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. Common names include pandan, screw palm and screw pine. The genus is classified ...

, tropical almond, cheese fruit,

Banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

trees, coconut palms,

taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

fields, and a few mango trees. Among local

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

creatures are the

common moorhen The common moorhen (''Gallinula chloropus''), also known as the waterhen, is a bird species in the Rail (bird), rail family (Rallidae). It is distributed across many parts of the Old World, across Africa, Europe, and Asia. It lives around well-ve ...

, exclusively found in Fuvahmulah nationally and Maldivian

white-breasted waterhen The white-breasted waterhen (''Amaurornis phoenicurus'') is a waterbird of the rail and crake family, Rallidae, that is widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia. They are dark slaty birds with a clean white face, breast and belly. The ...

(''Amaurornis phoenicurus maldivus''), which is an endemic species of the Maldives. Most of the lake is in Maalegan ward, the rest is in Miskiymagu. Today fish from the lake are not used for eating. Unlike,

Dhadimagi Kilhi Dhadimagi Kilhi (literally "Dhadimagu Lake") is one of the two fresh water lakes in Fuvahmulah, Maldives. Description Located in Dhadimagu ward of the island, with an area of 6.37 hectares and an average depth of 4 feet, it is the second-largest ...

in the north of the island, Bandaara Kilhi is not used by the locals for swimming due to the depth and muddy shorelines. To compliment Fuvahmulah Harbour's opening in 2003, the lake's jetty and observation deck was built. Since 2011 two huts and a restaurant in Maldivian cultural style with the roofs

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

with

coconut palm The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

leaves have stood on the shores. A custom is feeding the tilapia and variety of creatures which inhabit the lake from local small craft. Bandaara Kilhi is a protected area of Fuvahmulah since 12 June 2012, nationally, and by the local atoll council since five months before.

References

{{Reflist Bodies of water of the Maldives Lakes of Asia Protected areas of Asia