Largest Lake

Chilka Lake (Odisha) is the largest lake of India.

Lakes are enclosed water bodies. Based on origin, lakes can be divided into natural lakes and artificial lakes. A different classification divides lakes in to three different types – fresh water lakes, salty lakes and brackish lakes. Fresh water lakes are generally fed by rivers, salty lakes are generally saline whereas brackish lakes are partially saline.

Spread over Puri, Ganjam and Khurda districts of Odisha, Chilka Lake is a brackish water lagoon. It is the largest lake of India measuring approximately 1165 sq. kilometres. Chilka lake is thus the largest salt water lake of India. It is also the largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian subcontinent. The maximum length of Chilka Lake is 64 kilometres.

If we consider the length only (and not the overall area), then Vembanad Lake (spread across many districts of Kerala) comes at top with a length of 96.5 kilometres.

Wular Lake, located in Bandipore district of Jammu and Kashmir, is the largest fresh water lake of India measuring approximately 260 sq. kilometres. This natural lake is dwarfed by several artificial man-made lakes. Gobind Ballabh Pant Sagar located in Sonebhadra district, Uttar Pradesh, is the biggest man-made lake of India. The lake is created by the reservoir of Rihand Dam. Similarly, Dhebar Lake, which is also called as Jaisamand Lake and is located in Udaipur district of Rajasthan, is the second biggest man-made lake.

Rajasthan’s Sambhar Lake is the largest inland salt water lake of India, with the surface area of approximately 200 sq. kilometres.

Tso Lhamo Lake (also called as ChhoLhamo/Chholamo lake) located in North Sikkim is India’s highest lake, located at an altitude of 5,330 metres above the sea level.