Raja Talab is a large

man-made lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

located at Jharia Jharkhand, India.

Construction

The lake was built at Jharia by Raja Durga Prasad Singh, the

Raja of Jharia Jharia Raj / Jharia Estate was a Zamindari estate in British India, located at Jharia in Bihar province of the Bengal Presidency now in Jharkhand. The present Jharia house is an offshoot of Palganj in Hazaribagh and was formerly established at ...

during his reign in the years 1912–13. After death of Raja Durga Prasad in 1916, his successor, Raja Shiva Prasad Singh further developed the lake - put up embankments and beautified the lake. The pond was used also for the royal - Rajbari Durga Puja being celebrated by Rajas of Jharia and they used to bathe in this lake before entering the royal

Durga Durga (, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around combating evils and demonic ...

temple near the lake.

Description

The lake is spread over an area of 8.46 acres of huge water body having a diameter of 100 meters. There is also a small island in middle of the lake. The lake water was once pure enough for drinking during pre-independence days of Jharia Raj. However, the years of dumping of garbage, sewage outlet, washing of clothes, cattle, immersion of

Durga Puja Durga Puja (ISO 15919, ISO: , ), also known as Durgotsava or Shaaradotsava, is an annual festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which pays homage to the Hinduism, Hindu goddess Durga, and is also celebrated because of Durga's victo ...

idols, and Chhath Puja offerings had clogged lake and left lake water stagnated and stinking. The last study was done in 2007 by ISM-Dhanbad's department of environmental science engineering under Impact of Coal Mining in Jharia Town. The study found its water was alkaline with a pH of 8.11, while cations and anions were greater than the limit prescribed by the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

. The local people and some politicians including members of Jharia Raj family started an agitation in 2013–14, which resulted in authorities sanctioning money for desilting, clean up and complete rehabilitation of lake with help of local mining company,

Bharat Coking Coal Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited which is inturn under the ownership of Ministry of Coal, Government of India, Its headquarters is located at Dhanbad and Kolkata, India. It was incorporated in January, 197 ...

. The lake is now being restored to its past glory.

References

{{coord, 23.745, 86.415, display=title Lakes of Jharkhand Dhanbad