Shekha Lake, located 16 km from the city, near Jalali town is the only natural tourist destination of the district. In the winter season, foreign birds from Siberian, Poland, Bhutan, China, and Russia are tweeting, in which more than 150 species of birds including Graylag Goose, Bar-headed Goose, Mallard, Mallard Teal, and many more come here but year by year they are getting extinct.
In a lake spread over 40 hectares, Rs 30 is charged from tourists, but the toilets are dirty, with no supply of water from the tanks. On average 40 tourists in summer and around 100 tourists in winter visit here daily. Dr. Salim Ali, the country's first bird scientist who came to Aligarh in 1954, discovered this place and during the honor ceremony in AMU in 1977, he proposed this place to the Wildlife Department as a suitable place of research on the birds. On 8th February 2014, former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav declared it as a bird sanctuary and released Rs 3 crore 4 lakh for the construction of a boundary wall, main gate, office, canteen, and parking.
Recently, Praveen Rao, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, ordered the cleaning of the lake.
Amit Srivastav, Deputy Director, Tourism Department said that there is no office of the Tourism Department in the Aligarh Division and all of its work is taking care from Agra office. There is no proposed plan of work in Aligarh this year.
