The Nine Lakes of Pokhara Valley: Ramsar Cluster Guide

The Lake Cluster of Pokhara Valley is a group of nine freshwater lakes in and around Pokhara Metropolitan City, Kaski District, Gandaki Province, in the mid-hills of western Nepal. Locally the group is often called Pokhara's nau taal, meaning nine lakes. On 2 February 2016 (19 Magh 2072 BS), World Wetlands Day, the cluster was listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, becoming Ramsar Site No. 2257 and Nepal's tenth Ramsar site.

With a designated area of about 261.1 square kilometres, roughly 26,106 hectares, including the surrounding catchment, it is the largest Ramsar site in Nepal by area, larger than earlier sites such as Koshi Tappu. The open water of the lakes makes up only a small share of that figure, about 3.5 percent of the total; the rest is the catchment of hills, forests, farmland and streams that feed and sustain the lakes.

The nine lakes that make up the cluster are Phewa, Begnas, Rupa, Dipang, Maidi, Khaste, Neureni, Gunde and Kamal Pokhari. Phewa and Kamal Pokhari sit within the older core of Pokhara city, while the remaining lakes lie in the eastern Lekhnath area, once a separate municipality and now part of Pokhara Metropolitan City.

The Pokhara Valley lakes are tectonic and fluvial in origin rather than glacial. The broad, low valley floor is built largely from the Pokhara Formation, a thick blanket of gravel, sand and silt carried down from the high Annapurna and Machhapuchhre massifs by the Seti Gandaki river and by catastrophic debris flows over the last few thousand years. Where these sediments and tectonic movements blocked the mouths of side valleys, water backed up behind the natural dams to form the lakes seen today.

This shared origin explains why the lakes cluster in an intermontane basin at relatively low elevation for the Himalayas, generally between about 600 and 800 metres above sea level, and why several are shallow and prone to filling with sediment. Pokhara receives some of the highest rainfall in Nepal, so the lakes and their catchments play an important role in the local water cycle by recharging groundwater, moderating floods and trapping sediment before it moves downstream.

Because they lie in warm, sheltered mid-hill terrain with abundant water and vegetation, the lakes support far richer wetland life than higher, colder mountain lakes. That combination of accessibility, scenery and biodiversity is what led the government to nominate the whole cluster, rather than any single lake, for Ramsar listing.

Three large lakes anchor the cluster and account for most of its open water. Phewa (Fewa) Lake is the centrepiece of Pokhara's tourism and the largest lake in the valley, with an area of roughly 4.4 square kilometres at an elevation of about 742 metres. It is generally regarded as the second-largest lake in Nepal, with an average depth of around 8 to 9 metres and a maximum of about 24 metres, and it hosts the lakeside Tal Barahi temple and the Lakeside tourist district.

Begnas Lake, in the Lekhnath area east of the city, is the second-largest lake of the cluster and one of the largest lakes in Nepal. It is quieter than Phewa, ringed by hills and farmland, and is important for irrigation, fisheries and a growing share of Pokhara's tourism. Neighbouring Rupa Lake lies at about 600 metres, covers roughly 1.35 square kilometres and is shallow, with an average depth near 3 metres and a maximum around 6 metres; its inflow of nutrient-rich water makes it highly productive for fish and a notable stop for water birds.

These three lakes are the best known and most visited. Together they demonstrate the range within the cluster, from the deep, tourism-driven Phewa to the shallow, agriculture-linked Rupa.

The remaining six lakes are much smaller and far less visited, yet they are the reason the site is a cluster rather than a set of three separate lakes. Most sit in the Lekhnath area east of Pokhara city, within a short drive or walk of Begnas and Rupa, and several are being promoted for birdwatching, picnics and low-key day trips. They are also the most vulnerable to shrinking through sedimentation, weed growth and encroachment.

Khaste Lake, at Kharane Phant in Lekhnath, is the most notable of the smaller lakes for wildlife. It covers roughly 24.8 hectares in total, of which about 13.7 hectares is open water, and is managed as a bird wetland: more than 60 bird species have been recorded, including migratory bar-headed geese, common pochard and ruddy shelduck that arrive in winter from Siberia, India and Central Asia. Khaste receives inflow from tiny Neureni Lake and drains through the Taal Khola stream, and pisciculture has long been practised there.

The other small lakes are modest in size but each has its own character. Dipang Lake covers about 32 hectares and is only 3 to 5 metres deep, a popular spot for picnics that is losing water to sedimentation. Maidi Lake is the smallest of the group at little more than a hectare, a peaceful walk-in pond in Lekhnath. Gunde Lake, in Pokhara-26, covers around 5 hectares but has suffered from weak conservation. Neureni is a very small pond that feeds Khaste, and Kamal Pokhari, a lotus pond nearer the city core, completes the nine.

The cluster qualified for Ramsar listing because it supports globally significant biodiversity in a compact, accessible landscape. Surveys behind the listing recorded about 168 species of birds, 28 species of fish, 11 amphibians, 28 reptiles and 32 mammals, alongside around 60 aquatic plant species and more than 300 terrestrial plant species across the lakes and their catchment.

Several species are globally threatened. The lakes and surrounding forests shelter mammals such as the vulnerable clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) and the endangered Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata), while the wetlands host globally threatened water birds, including the critically endangered Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri) and, in the wider catchment, the critically endangered Indian vulture (Gyps indicus). The presence of such species is exactly the kind of evidence the Ramsar Convention uses when it applies its criteria for sites that support vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered species.

Beyond rare species, the lakes deliver everyday ecosystem services on which local communities depend: drinking and irrigation water, fisheries, fodder and reeds, groundwater recharge, flood control, sediment trapping and, at Phewa, hydropower and a large tourism economy. This blend of natural and economic value is central to the case for protecting the cluster as a single connected system.

The Pokhara lakes face steady pressure from a growing city. The most serious threats are eutrophication from nutrient-rich runoff, sedimentation from deforested and farmed catchments, unplanned settlement and road building along the shores, and the spread of invasive species. Water hyacinth and the weed Parthenium hysterophorus choke shallow water, while introduced fish such as tilapia and African catfish alter the native fish community. Several of the smaller lakes, including Dipang, Gunde and Maidi, are visibly shrinking.

Conservation is coordinated at several levels. At the national level, wetland policy sits with the Ministry of Forests and Environment and bodies such as the National Lake Conservation Development Committee. Locally, the Lake Conservation and Development Authority, Gandaki ( Tal Sanrakshan tatha Vikas Pradhikaran ), based in Pokhara, is the provincial authority responsible for managing and restoring the lakes; earlier community-led efforts date back to a Pokhara valley lake conservation committee formed around 2008.

Practical measures include dredging and de-silting, controlling water hyacinth, regulating shoreline construction, managing fisheries and promoting the smaller lakes for low-impact ecotourism and birdwatching so that they generate the local support and revenue needed to survive. Rupa Lake in particular is often cited as a model of community-based cooperative management linking upstream farmers with lake fisheries.

For travellers and students, the cluster can be explored as a loop east of Pokhara. Phewa, in the heart of the tourist district, is the easiest to reach and the most developed, with boating, the Tal Barahi temple and views of the Annapurna range on clear mornings. Begnas and Rupa, about 15 to 20 kilometres east in the Lekhnath area, offer quieter boating, walking trails and homestays, and are the gateway to the smaller lakes.

The six smaller lakes suit visitors who want birdwatching, picnics and short hikes rather than resorts. Khaste is the best target for birders, especially in winter when migratory ducks and geese arrive. Because several are sensitive and shrinking wetlands, visitors are asked to avoid littering, stay on paths and respect fishing and conservation rules.

Seen together, the nine lakes tell a single story: a chain of tectonic, river-dammed basins in one of Nepal's wettest valleys, rich enough in birds, fish and rare wildlife to rank as the country's largest Wetland of International Importance.