Lake Pichola

The lakes around Udaipur were primarily created by building dams to meet the drinking water and irrigation needs of the city and its neighbourhood.

Udaipur, in turn, is well connected through the Golden Quadrilateral road network, and it lies equidistant, at 650 kilometres, from Delhi and Mumbai on the National Highway (NH) 8.

It also falls on the East-West Corridor which starts from Porbandar and ends at Silchar and intersects the Golden Quadrilateral and a part of this is the stretch from Udaipur to Chittor.

[3][7] The Sisarma stream, a tributary of the Kotra River, drains a catchment of 55 km2 from the Aravalli Mountains and contributes to the flows in the lake.

This palace built in marble in 1746 by Maharana Jagat Singh II, 62nd successor to the royal dynasty of Mewar, spreads across the 1.6 hectares (4.0 acres) island and is claimed to be as impressive as the Taj Mahal.

At the southern end, a dam was built across the major tributary to facilitate the Banjara tribesman to ford the stream with animals carrying grains.

[3][6][9][10] The fact that the Pichola lake was built by nomadic gypsies testifies that the rulers of Mewar encouraged people to build water harvesting structures.

According to a study carried out by the "Centre of Advanced Study in Geology", Punjab University, the water quality of the lake has a high sodium and Bicarbonate content, which is attributed to the continental weathering due to anthropogenic pressure (tourist influx), intense development activities in the basin area and untreated effluent from municipal and domestic sewage into the Lake.

Udaipur Panorama from Jag Mandir Island
Udaipur Panorama with dried Lake Pichola