Lingambudhi Lake - Topography

Topography

One and half decade back Lingambudhi Lake was in the outskirts of Mysore City, but now it is engulfed on all the sides by the extending city dwellings. The lake is geographically located at 12° 16’ 20” N and 76° 31’E to the southwest of Mysore city at an altitude of 730m above mean sea level. From the city center, the lake is situated at a distance of 7 km.

Historical records document that Lingambudhi lake was excavated in 1828 A.D. by Lingajammani, a queen of Krishnaraja Wodeyar III, ruler of the erstwhile kingdom of Mysore as part of building the Mahalingeshwara temple and as an act of thanksgiving to the local female deity Shri Chamundeshwari. It has a catchment area of 45 km2. The lake was well outside the city limits when first census (1988) was conducted, but now (2011) is swallowed up on all the sides. During the years of study number of brick manufacturing units that were present have come down to nil from twenty. Lake fringe that was without trees coverage in the beginning of the observation has grown into a thicket by 1997–98 courtesy State forest departments’ social forestry scheme and began thinning by 2002–03 due to firewood collection and natural death of fast growing trees that were planted. Forest department officially declared the lake spread over 217 acres, as Lingambudhi Bird Sanctuary in 2001.

Tropical dry deciduous, secondary scrub and semi arid grass land is the habitat covering the area followed by irrigated fields during good rainy season. Pongamia pinnata, Acacia spp, Mangifera indica, Syzygium cumini, Ziziphus spp are some that are in abundance here. Downstream of water flow as well part of shoreline is covered by Typha, Scripus, Pandanus and Phoenix spp. Lake fringes that was without trees coverage (1988) when earlier studies begun by individual birders and NGOs. Lakes surroundings grown into a thicket by 1997–98, courtesy State forest departments’ social forestry scheme. Reduction in tree density was observed during 2002–03 due to ageing process and firewood collection. But, forestation thereafter in open grassland and shore lineresulted in reducing terrestrial and wader’s habitat.