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Karanji Lake, positioned in the city of Mysore is a picturesque lake, flanked by beautiful nature is formed at the Chamundi foothills, which stands behind the famous Mysore zoo. The lake is sprawled over an area of about 90 acres and is one of the largest lakes in the Indian state of Karnataka. The literal meaning of the lake’s name Karanji is ‘Fountain’ in Kannada. This nature park also has a butterfly and a walk-through aviary. This aviary stands as the biggest “walk through aviary” in the country. Here the water- spread area of the lake is around 55 hectares and the foreshore area is approximately 35 hectares. On the banks of the lake, there is also a museum called Regional Museum of Natural History. The lake of Karanji is owned and maintained by the Mysore Zoo Authority.
Karanji Lake was constructed by the King of Mysore and it dates back to 100 years ago. The lake was built as a percolation tank and was used by the residents for bathing, washing, drinking etc. Then in 1976, the Mysore Zoo took over the lake. This 90 acres water spread area holds 2.5 km long feeder channel from the nearby Chamundi hills and has about 745 hectares of catchment area.
The lake houses over 147 species of inhabitant and migratory birds. The lake is also a home to several species of butterflies, small mammals, making a perfect wetland ecosystem. The lake also catches the attention of many painted storks, grey pelicans, ibis and darters and a host of other winged beauties. The lake hosts around 45 species of butterflies, which makes the place a divine place with the colorful winged beauties over the backdrop of abundant nature.
Along with that there are mammals like herons, Asian open bill storks, egrets; red wattle lapwing, sandpipers, rose-ringed parakeet, black drongo, brown shrike, red-whiskered bulbul, booted warbler, sunbird and greenish warbler are some of the other species of birds that are found here in the lake region.
The aviary which stands on the banks of the lake is 60m long, 40m wide and 20m high and that makes it Indias biggest walk-through aviary. The lake also provides water sports activities such as boating and there is a children corner in the lake area.