Sambhar Lake

The Sambhar Salt Lake, India's largest inland salt lake, is located in Sambhar Lake Town, Jaipur district of Rajasthan, India, southwest of the city of Jaipur and northeast of Ajmer, Rajasthan. It surrounds the historical Sambhar Lake Town.

Geography

The lake receives water from six rivers: Mantha, Rupangarh, Khari, Khandela, Medtha and Samod. Lake has 5700 square km catchment area. The lake is an extensive saline wetland, with water depth fluctuating from as few as during the dry season to about 3 meters (10 ft) at the end of the monsoon season. It occupies an area of 190 to 230 square kilometers based on the season. The lake is elliptically shaped with a length of approximately 35.5 km and a breadth varying between 3  km and 11 km. The lake straddles Nagaur and Jaipur districts and borders on the Ajmer district. The circumference of the lake is 96 km, and it is surrounded by the Aravali hills on all sides.

The Sambhar lake basin is divided by a 5.1 km long dam made of sandstone. After the saltwater reaches a certain concentration, it is released from the west side to the east side by lifting dam gates. To the east of the dam are salt evaporation ponds where salt has been farmed for a thousand years. This eastern area is 80 square km and comprises salt reservoirs, canals and salt pans separated by narrow ridges. To the east of the dam is a railroad, built by the British (before India's independence) to provide access from Sambhar Lake City to the salt works.

The water is fed into the lake from streams from the rivers Mendha, Runpangarh, Khandel, and Karian. The Mendha and Rupangarh are main streams. The Mendha flows from north to south and the Rupangarh flows from south to north.

The temperature reaches in summer and goes as low as in winter.

Economic importance

Sambhar Salt Lake is India's largest saline lake and is the source of most of Rajasthan's salt production. It produces 196,000 tonnes of clean salt every year, which is around 0.66% of India's salt production. Salt is produced by evaporation of brine and is mostly managed by the government-owned company Sambhar Salts Ltd. (SSL), a joint venture of the Hindustan Salts Limited and the state government. SSL owns 3% of the eastern lake.

The company is struggling to produce sufficient amount of salt but the private players are producing more than 10 times that of the company due to production from thousands of illegal borewells, which are also severely harming the ecology of the salt lake. (see Environmental concerns section)

There are 38 clusters of villages surrounding the lake. Major settlements include Sambhar, Gudha, Jabdinagar, Nawa, Jhak, Korsina, Jhapok, Kanseda, Kuni, Tyoda, Govindi, Nandha, Sinodiya, Arwik ki dhani, Khanadja, Khakharki, Kerwa ki dhani, Rajas, Jalwali ki dhani.

In 2014, six PSUs including Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd had planned to set up the world's largest 4,000 MW Ultra-mega Solar power project in the land under the company. But after BJP government came to power in the state, the project was scrapped, citing environmental issues and shifted to Gujarat.

In 2019, the Rajasthan government started an asset-liability assessment to take over loss-making Sambhar Salts Ltd. from Hindustan Salts Ltd.

Ecological importance

Sambhar has been designated as a Ramsar site

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