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 salt (chemistry), salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include ...

lake in the

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

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 Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

. 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 . ...

, located in Jumla and

Mugu District Mugu District ( ), 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. Mugu is known for being both the ...

s of

Karnali Province Karnali Province () 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 , making it the largest province in Nepal with 18.97% of the country's ...

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 Nepalgunj (; ), also spelled Nepalganj, is a List of cities in Nepal#Alphabetical list, Sub-Metropolitan City in Banke district, Banke districts of Nepal, District, Nepal. It lies on the Terai plains near the southern border with Bahraich distr ...

. 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) **

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

. Currently, this area along with the national park is being protected by the

Nepali Army The Nepali Army (), also referred to as the Gorkhali Army (; see '' Gorkhas''), formally known as "Royal Nepal Army" is the land service branch of the Nepali Armed Forces. After the Gorkha Kingdom was founded in 1559, its army was establis ...

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. 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 and Murma at . 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 also occurs here. The lake holds three

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

fish species Nepalese snowtrout

Nepalese snowtrout The Nepalese snowtrout (''Schizothorax macrophthalmus'') is a cyprinid fish species of the genus ''Schizothorax''. This snowtrout was first collected in 1979 in the alpine fresh water Rara Lake located in Nepal's Rara National Park Rara Nati ...

(''Schizothorax macrophthalmus''), ('' S. nepalensis'') and the

Rara snowtrout The Rara snowtrout (''Schizothorax raraensis''), is a cyprinid fish species of the genus ''Schizothorax''. The Rara snowtrout was first collected in 1979 in the alpine fresh water Rara Lake located in Nepal's Rara National Park Rara National ...

''(S. raraensis'') and one endemic frog, Rara Lake frog (''

Nanorana rarica ''Nanorana rarica'' (common names: Rara paa frog, Rara Lake frog) is a frog species in the family Dicroglossidae. It is endemic to western Nepal. Its Type locality (biology), type locality is the eponymous Rara Lake located in the Rara National P ...

''). The Rara snowtrout is only recorded in this lake. 236 different species of birds can be found in the 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.

Transport

Rara Lake does not have connection to the national road network and can only be reached from the nearest town Jumla by trekking. From

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 Dolpo ( ) is a high-altitude culturally Tibetan region in the upper part of the Dolpa District of western Nepal, bordered in the north by China.. Part of the region lies in Shey Phoksundo National Park. The sparse, agro-pastoral population, ...

region. The nearest airports are

Talcha Airport Rara Airport , also known as Talcha Airport, is a domestic airport located in Chhayanath Rara serving Rara National Park in Karnali Province in Nepal. History The airport was constructed in 1975, operating with a single gravel runway until 201 ...

in Mugu and

Jumla Airport Jumla Airport is a domestic airport located in Jumla serving Jumla District, a district in Karnali Province in Nepal. Facilities The airport resides at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one asphalt paved runway designated 09/27 wh ...

in Jumla. A public bus also runs from

Surkhet Surkhet District (, ) is a district in Karnali Province of mid-western Nepal. Surkhet is one of the ten districts of Karnali located about west of the national capital Kathmandu. The district's area is . It had 288,527 population in 2001 and 350, ...

to Mugu District 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 ...

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.

References

External links

www.rara-lake.com
*
Flickr : Rara Lake
{{Authority control Ramsar sites in Nepal

Rara Rara or RARA may refer to: * Rara music, a form of festival music originating in Haiti * Rara festival, a Lent carnival in Haiti * Rara Lake, lake in Nepal * Rara, Nepal, a village in Karnali Zone * Rara National Park, a protected area in Nepa ...

Mugu District Karnali Province Lakes of Nepal