Following the letter from Uttarakhand Governor, in which he had written a letter to the chief secretary to take cognizance on declining water level of Nainital lake, State Government convened a meeting with officials concerned and asked the Nainital DM to send comprehensive report about how we can increase its water level. lake development council (lDC), Nainital is bound to take care of the lake. As it is situated in the heart of the Nainital so everybody is concerned about this. Talking to the Pioneer Principal secretary Anand Vardhan said that state has decided to conduct comprehensive hydrological study. For this they have invited National Institutes of Hydrology, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Central ground water board and Uttarakhadn space application centre as well.
As per the available data National institute of hydrology (NIH) Roorkee had studied to understand why water level at lake is going down. During their study it has been revealed that if rainfall during winters is less than normal then level of water in the lake goes down. Since there was less rainfall over two years, the water level this year has considerably declined. It has also reported 50 percent recharge from flow; 10 percent from nearby catchment i.e. Nullah and 10-15 percent come through direct precipitation.
For this Nainital DM has been asked to submit comprehensive report to the government. When asked about the possible steps that can be used to increase its level. They said that they have received numerous suggestions including diversion of water from nearby available resource and increase the lake height so that it can withold more rain water.
There is a myth that nainital people gets supply of drinking water from lake but it is wrong because to cope up with the demand state has 12 tube wells and they have been supplying water from these tubewells. It has been told that its depth is about 25 meter and as winter precipitation is less for the last two years so the water level has gone down. Meanwhile we have asked the nainital DM to send comprehensive report to the government.
He further said that NIH had conducted survey of the lake in the year 1994 and thereafter no thorough study has been conducted so we have decided to conduct comprehensive study by employing experts of these fields which in turn would make their approach more scientific.