Abstract:
Mansar lake is situated about 55 km East of Jammu City, between longitude 75° 5' 11.5" to 75° 5' 12.5" E and latitude 32° 40' 58.25" to 32° 40' 59.25" N and at an elevation of 666 metres above mean sea level in the Siwalik Himalaya. An attempt has been made to study the morphometric features of the Mansar lake.
The area adjoining the lake was surveyed (scale. 1:2000) using the plane table and measured by a digital planimeter. The lake surface comes to be 0.59 km². As measured from Survey of India toposheet No. 43 P/2 (surveyed in 1961. Scale 1:50,000), the lake surface area is 0.58 km² and lake basin area is 1.67 km². This shows that surface area of the lake has not reduced during the last 40 years. The maximum water depth in the lake is 38.25 meter. The maximum length and width of the lake is 1204 metres and 645 metres. respectively. The lake mean width is 490 metres and mean depth is 20.23 m. Circumference of the lake is 3.4 km. The mean slope of the lake floor is 0.14 m/m. Slope of the lake between 0.0 - 5.75 m depth is 0.21 m/m. 5.75 - 10.75 m depth 0.30 m/m (maximum) and 35.75 -38.25 m depth 0.04 m/m (minimum)
Volume of the lake has been determined using a contour map prepared on the basis of bathymetric survey. Total capacity of the lake is 12.37 Mm³. Out of the total lake volume, 63 % is up to 15.75 m depth and remaining 37% water between the 15 m to 38.25 m. Lake water can be managed for drinking and irrigation purposes for the area suffering from the water scarcity such as Kandi belt in the Jammu region.
