Lonar Crater Lake - By-products of The Lake

By-products of The Lake

The Gazetteer chronicles the findings of the British administrators and scientists, notably, Colonel Mackenzie, Scientist Dr. I. B. Lyon, Mr. J. O. Malcolmson and Mr. Plymen, Agricultural Chemist. Some extracts from Mr Plymen's report, given in quotes, are informative.

The saline deposits obtained from the lake are rather of an exceptional nature. Compared with the most famous salt lake in India, the Sambhar Lake in Rajsthan(India), it will be seen that whereas at Lonar the carbonates of soda are the most important, in the case of the Sambhar Lake the deposits of sodium chloride or common salt give the lake its value. The modes of formation are also entirely different and it is practically certain that the Lonar salts are derived from an unknown source in the bed of the lake. It is true that water is continually flowing into the lake and that except by evaporation there is no loss. The main feeder stream could not however supply this amount of alkali nor could the other smaller supplies coming in during the rains, for on all sides of the lake vegetation is abundant, particularly where the main stream flows in continuously. Were any quantity of alkali present in this water, vegetation would suffer considerably and, with exception of a few varieties of plants, eventually die out entirely.

The salts collected from this lake vary in their nature and composition and from their-appearance are easily separated by men accustomed to handling them. Various names are given to some five or six main varieties, but there is no fixed line between one salt and another, their compositions depending upon the period and condition of crystallization. At the present time large quantities of these salts are lying on the shores of the lake...

With the process of crystallization, sodium chloride or common salt is formed along with the carbonates of soda resulting in a number of products, as explained below.

Dalla Nimak and Nimak Dalla are found in white crystalline masses.

Khuppal is obtained in solid compact lumps and consists of a mixture of carbonates and chlorides in roughly equal proportions.

Pipadi or Papri, which has a similar chemical composition, is very different in appearance. It is frequently tinged, slightly pink in colour and hollow air spaces are found between the crystalline masses which are formed in flakes or layers.

Bhuski has no definite structure but consists of a soft flaky powder mixed with a quantity of impurity.It can be compared to small salt substance or baking soda.

The salts are not all obtained in the same way or at the same period of the year. Pipadi and Bhuski are deposited on the shores of the lake as the water dries up in the hot weather, Pipadi being the upper layer and therefore the purer. Except for Bhuski the salts are in a fairly pure state and contain only small proportions of earthy matter. Their further purification is not considered difficult.

Commercial exploitation of the salts from the lake is recorded from 1842, including the period of Government of His Highness Nizam, and until 1903. Presently, there is only a very small local demand for these Lonar Lake products.