Monsoon delay turns Laknavaram lake a puddle

Tourists who visit the Lake to enjoy scenic beauty are disappointed

Govindaraopet (Warangal): Historic Laknavaram Lake spread in about 10,000 acres of area is looking like a small pond of water even as a fortnight passed since the beginning of rainy season.

The lake is lacking inflows due to the delayed arrival of southwest monsoon, which besides hampering agriculture activity, has left the lake parched. Constructed by Kakatiya rulers in 13th century the lake provides irrigation facility to an ayacut of about 4,500 hectares by holding about 2.135 tmcft of water.

The monsoon, which was predicted to enter Telangana in the first week of June, is yet to make its entry. As a result, there is only isolated rain activity here and the district mainly remained dry. The normal rainfall for the month of June is 137.2 mm but as on June 17, the district received 78.7 mm rain with just five rainy days.

The desiccated lake, where the waters are at dead storage level, is on the other hand turning down the tourists arriving here with a hope of enjoying the scenic beauty of the lake. The boats that carry the tourists are now sitting idle on the lake bed.

“As the rainy season began, we have come here expecting to water in the lake and to witness the lake’s beauty but is nothing but a dry land,” said K Vineeth, a biking enthusiast who came from Hyderabad along with friends.

“We are going to visit Medaram temple and came here to see Laknavaram Lake as we heard about its scenic beauty but we got disappointed to see the dried lake,” rued an LIC employee from Kagaznagar, G Satyanarayana.

The State government has been executing Mission Kakatiya works at the tanks that don’t have at least 100 acres of ayacut, while neglecting important water bodies like Laknavaram Lake, complained former MLA Seetakka.

Speaking to The Hans India, she suggested the government should desilt the lake to increase its storage capacity and connect it with Devadula lift irrigation project to pump waters from river Godavari into it to ensure water availability round the year.

The irrigation and command area development in-charge superintendent engineer, A Srinivas Reddy, has informed that the State government has proposed to take up restoration works at the lake during the third phase of Mission Kakatiya.

Incidentally, another historic water body Ramappa Lake at Palempet in Venkatapur mandal in the district is also facing the same fate like Laknavaram Lake due to lack of rains.

James Edwin