Umiam Lake

We started our journey around 11am in the morning with no destination on our mind. It was my parents wedding anniversary making the journey romantic for them and adventurous for me and my brother. We decided to visit umiam lake located in Meghalaya, India after the massive rain fall the night before and we were not disappointed with our choice to visit there after rain. We reached umiam lake at around 1:30 pm.

The lake serves as a major tourist attraction for water sport and exploring. To enter the lake’s premises there is a fee of 50 rupees (Indian currency)  for a ticket. Visitors will find kayaking, water cycling, scooting and boating. After it has rained the lake overs an even more beautiful landscape to capture some awesome pictures. Tourist as well as locals visit here during winters (December, January)  for picnics. The food that is available within are snacks cooked by the locals.   

Umiam lake was created by damming the Umiam River in the early 1960s. Apart from storing water for electricity generation, the lake also provides numerous ecosystem services at micro, meso and macro levels. However, due to the rising population of shilling upstream of the lake, the lake is starting to become highly polluted. Also, there is the heavy problem of silting. Causing range between upstream encroachments, deforestation, blockage of natural drainage systems.
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Visiting there made my mind calm and allowed for me to be more creative when taking pictures. We stayed there for almost 2 hour and around 4pm we started our journey back home which was a 1.5 hours journey. This destination is beautiful but the emerging and current threats could result in others not being able to appreciate the lake, if the right steps are not taken to maintain them the site.

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Blog post written by Neha Ahmed