Dhadimagi Kilhi (literally "Dhadimagu 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 ...

Description

Located in Dhadimagu ward of the island, with an area of 6.37

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. A ...

and an average depth of 4 feet, it is the second-largest lake by volume in the

, and larger in area than its counterpart Bandaara Kilhi, which is the largest lake by volume in the country. Bounded by dense vegetation of different kinds ranging from

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 ...

s to reeds used for weaving mats,

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 plant varieties such as '' Syzygium cumini'' ( jambul), pond-apple,

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

, screwpine, tropical almond, cheese fruit, ambarella and

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 ...

fields as well, there is the continuation of a large marsh land area towards the south of the island associated with the lake.

Ecology

In the past, fish were farmed and harvested in the lake. Dhadimagi Kilhi is frequented by anglers who game for tilapia fish and visitors who enjoy boat riding and feeding the fish which inhabit the lake. Among the birds which inhabit the place apart from 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 ...

which is a bird exclusively found in Fuvahmulah only in the Maldivian archipelago, Maldivian white-breasted waterhen (''Amaurornis phoenicurus maldivus'') which is an endemic species of the Maldives too can be sighted by the lakeside. Among seasonal visitors are flamingos, herons and

white tern The white tern or common white tern (''Gygis alba'') is a small seabird found across the tropical oceans of the world. It is sometimes known as the fairy tern, although this name is potentially confusing as it is also the common name of ''Sternul ...

s. Dhadimagi Kilhi is the most popular for swimming among all fresh water lakes in the Maldives. The lake has been used by the locals to teach young children how to swim, since the lake is calm and there are no waves, unlike the sea which surrounds the island. The rich mineral water and mud in the lake has been used for medicinal purposes. Even though the locals do not use water from the lake for drinking, laboratory tests have shown that the water in Dhadimagi Kilhi is not unsafe for drinking.

Environmental protection

Dhadimagi Kilhi was declared as a protected area of Fuvahmulah by the government of Maldives on 12 June 2012 and the Atoll Council of Fuvahmulah also passed a decree to establish the place as a protected area on 19 January 2012.

References

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