Underground lake found in Nainital [TKB-Science]

About 400 meters away from the mouth of the Naini Lake of the lake city, which was the main attraction of the tourists, a lake about 200 meters long and up to five meters deep has been found under the ground. Which the district officials are considering as nothing less than a divine boon for this city. The report submitted to the Uttarakhand Irrigation Department of Professor Anand Joshi and Professor Sandeep Singh of the Department of Geophysics of IIT Roorkee was revealed.

According to the report, this lake has been seen in the underground geophysics survey of 70 meters area adjacent to the water sources which became the cause of water leakage in Ballia Nala area. It is also interesting that this underground lake in Ballia Nala area is not connected with Naini Lake. According to Harish Chandra Singh, Engineer of the Irrigation Department related to the maintenance of Naini Lake, this simply means that if the water of this underground lake is removed, there will be no effect on Naini Lake.

The administration and construction agencies troubled by the landslide in the foothills of Nainital’s Ballia drain have also felt relief due to the availability of the underground lake. The survey report shows that the water is not leaking from the Naini lake, but from the underground lake. Landslides in the Ballia Nala area in 2014 and 2018 caused heavy damage to the entire area. Many houses had to be evacuated.

After his report, a committee of several agencies including IIT Roorkee, Wadia Institute of Dehradun, GSI was formed to survey the problematic Ballia Nala area by the order of the High Court. In the survey report of IIT Roorkee, it was found that water is not leaking from Naini lake but from underground lake. This survey report revealed that there is a lake about 200 meters long from GGIC to Sipahi Dhara. Due to this, 80 lakh liters of water is coming out in Ballia Nala every day. That is, the problem of drinking Nainital can end with so much water.

The good news is that the water of this underground lake is better and pollution free than the Naini lake. This has been confirmed by the National Hydrological Survey Institute. This will have three big benefits. First, there will be supply of clean water to Nainital. Second- Landslide will stop in Ballia Nala area and third- the beauty and water level of Naini Lake will not decrease.