Tourists enjoy a motorboat ride in Bharat Taal, Nepal. Image by Nakul Sah.

• The Bagmati Lake (Bharat Taal), constructed recently in Nepal’s southern Sarlahi district, attracts Nepali and Indian tourists with recreational activities, generating revenue, employment and cross-border tourism.

• The lake, which may have helped improve groundwater levels, soil moisture and crop yields in surrounding areas, has provided habitat for migratory birds.

• However, the fate of the lake hangs in the balance as the country’s anti-corruption court looks into alleged corruption and the lack of environmental compliance during its construction.

SARLAHI, Nepal — Nepali social media influencer Ishtu Karki recently posted photos and videos enjoying a motorboat ride on the Bagmati Lake, popularly known as Bharat Taal, in Sarlahi district in the country’s southern plains.

“We have such a wonderful pond here in Sarlahi … You don’t need to go to Bangkok or Phuket now,” she said about the lake adjoining Bagmati River.

The 33.8-hectare (83.54-acre) lake, commissioned by Bagmati municipality mayor Bharat Bahadur Thapa — hence the name — and built in 2021, attracts visitors not just from Nepal, but also from across the border in India in large numbers. On a recent November afternoon, Mongabay saw seven Nepali tourists pay 300 rupees ($2.1) each for a boat ride. A young Indian couple paid 100 rupees (70 cents) for a short horse ride on the bank and 50 rupees (35 cents) more for a video clip. “We have limited drinking water supplies here, but I like to come here to see the lake,” said Satendra Kumar, who visits the lake occasionally from his home in neighboring Bihar state, India.

But the next time visitors such as Karki and Kumar return to the lake, it may not be there. Since its construction, the lake has shot up as a popular cross-border attraction with economic, groundwater recharge and biodiversity benefits, but ongoing legal cases, lack of long-term environmental and biodiversity safeguards, inadequate waste management, and unclear jurisdiction have raised concerns, stalled development and exposed government weaknesses.

The mayor, who has been convicted of corruption (pending appeal), commissioned the lake without proper environmental impact assessments (EIA) and due procedures, argues Nepal’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

The municipality has limited income sources of its own. According to the statement of accounts for the year 2022-23 fiscal year, around 83% of its 695.9 million rupees ($4.86 million) income comes from grants and revenue sharing from federal and provincial governments. In 2018, the municipality decided to start work on the lake. It decided to allow excavation of stones, gravel, sand and soil from the barren banks of the Bagmati riverbed to construct the lake.

The town then leased out boating and parking operations at the lake for 40 million rupees ($280,000) for a period of three years. The contractors also run activities such as boating, cycling and horse riding, as well as miniature train rides, toy cars and food services. The municipality also leased out a nearby mango orchard for 12.15 million rupees ($85,000) for five years. More than 26 staff members work in and around the lake with jobs ranging from cleaning to providing lifeguard services.

The ward chair, Om Shrestha, said the lake was intended to make the municipality self‑reliant, and the volume of tourists, especially Indian visitors, validates the vision.

According to the 2024-25 economic activity report for Madhesh province, where Sarlahi is located, since this lake lies close to Bihar, which does not have such large reservoirs, it has the potential to attract Indian visitors as well. This, in turn, promotes tourism, increases economic activities, and becomes a good source to earn Indian currency.

What began as an economic project is now not only impacting the local economy but also the ecosystem in a visible way, even as a detailed scientific assessment is yet to be carried out. The town hadn’t carried out an EIA before starting work.

The lake, in a short span of time, has evolved as a prominent wetland in the area offering refuge to migratory birds on their seasonal journeys from the north to the south and back, according to the NGO Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN). When researchers from BCN monitored the lake for 16 days in January 2023, they recorded 164 individuals of 13 species. BCN’s program manager Ankit Joshi said more birds might come to the lake if the noise levels are controlled.

Residents from drought‑affected Madhesh regions downstream of the Bagmati told Mongabay the lake has helped improve groundwater levels. Locals farming the surrounding land said moisture now persists longer in the soil, wells have more water, and crop yields have improved.

Akash Moktan, 40, who has been living in the area since 2000, said that after the lake was built, the soil has become moister and its production has improved. “An hour after it would rain, the water would dry up, but now the moisture remains. Even a small amount of water yields results,” he said. Bhakta Bahadur Syangtan, 57, also said water levels in the wells in the village have improved.

Acting chair of the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission (NNRFC), Juddha Bahadur Gurung, who has visited the area several times, also said that the lake has stimulated economic activity and improved groundwater recharge in the southern region.

Despite its popularity, the project faces intense scrutiny. The CIAA alleges that Bagmati municipality illegally built the lake inside the Sagarnath Forestry Development Project area. It states that the municipality excavated riverbed materials without approval, ignored repeated warnings, and misappropriated millions of rupees from federal and provincial funds to construct structures inside a national forest.

The CIAA alleges that municipal officials forged official documents claiming the land didn’t belong to the forest, failed to conduct required environmental studies, bypassed procurement laws, and used water from the Bagmati River without permission from relevant authorities. It charged multiple officials, including a provincial minister and municipal leaders, with corruption and misappropriation of public funds.

A case presented before the Special Court, where corruption cases are prosecuted, has already resulted in convictions. In August 2025, Mayor Thapa, Deputy Mayor Leela Kumari Muktan and Chief Administrative Officer Bimal Kumar Pokhrel were sentenced to eight years in prison and fined to the tune of 100 million rupees ($700,000) each. The defendants now have the option of filing an appeal.

Another case alleged the municipality incurred losses exceeding 1.49 billion rupees ($10.44 million) when officials extracted 4.7 million cubic meters (166 million cubic feet) of riverbed material from forest land without permission. The Division Forest Office, Sarlahi, filed this case after Sagarnath Forestry Development Project reported that the municipality ignored repeated warnings and built the lake, along with the mango orchard.

Due to these ongoing legal cases, development work on the lake has stopped. Furthermore, Gen Z protesters torched the municipal office on Sept. 9, 2025, during the anti-corruption protests, destroying financial documents related to the project.

The municipality’s chief administrative officer, Pratit Bhandari, said the municipality is in “a state of silence.” While revenue collection continues, further development is frozen until judicial and political issues are resolved and documents are recovered.

Thapa, who remains suspended, said that the lake was constructed not for personal gain but with the intention of benefiting the people, and said he feels proud of the work. “All work was carried out according to existing laws; there were no mistakes. My political opponents are trying to ruin my career,” he said, adding that his office is working on preparing an EIA report soon.

Thapa told Mongabay that the cost of the project was expected to be around 2 billion rupees ($14 million), but only about 20% of the work has been completed so far. He acknowledged that the court may order the lake to be covered back up but didn’t comment further as the matter was sub judice.

Mongabay couldn’t independently verify his claim as the municipality couldn’t provide relevant documents.

When Mongabay separately spoke to Sabnam Pathak, information officer at the Department of Forest and Soil Conservation, and Santosh Kumar Jha, divisional forest officer at the Divisional Forest Office, Sarlahi. They said that since the matter is sub judice, they can’t comment on the case.

Environmental researchers agree that while the project has significant potential for tourism, groundwater recharge, local revenue generation and biodiversity conservation, but because it lacks a proper EIA, insufficient waste and environmental management systems are issues of concern. The detailed project report (DPR) of the fishery lake mentions some adverse environmental impacts such as noise, vibration and air quality degradation during construction. But it doesn’t prescribe mitigation measures.

Environmentalist Ajit Srivastava said that while ponds such as Bharat Taal are important for groundwater recharge, waste generated from tourism activities is a major concern.

As the project hasn’t carried out a detailed EIA, it lacks strategies and plans to manage solid waste. All the waste could eventually find its way into the lake, he said. Neer Shakya, a senior hydrogeologist and visiting professor at Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus, Kathmandu, said proper management of the toilets built at the lake area is essential, and water quality should be tested periodically.

Ram Prasad Chaudhary, a biodiversity expert and professor emeritus at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, emphasized protecting local biodiversity. He said that the lake could be developed as a habitat for birds, but the current area is not suitable because of human activity and heavy concretization. Chaudhary noted that planting native trees and vegetation could create habitats for wildlife, allowing animals from nearby forests to visit and spend time. He recommended that tourist areas and biodiversity conservation areas be separated to balance recreation and ecological protection. But all these plans haven’t been considered due to the lack of an EIA and prescriptions for mitigation measures.

Additionally, the lake’s case has laid bare some important issues related to sharing the power between different levels of the government. Bhim Prasad Dhungana, president of the Municipal Association of Nepal (MuAN), noted that legal issues arise with projects such as this lake as laws aren’t clear about shared jurisdiction between different levels of the government. The relevant laws are fragmented, and some issues regarding shared jurisdiction remain unresolved. “If new initiatives such as the lake face legal challenges, it may discourage other municipalities from attempting similar projects,” he said, adding that it was the job of the federal government to facilitate such projects and ensure environmental and legal compliance.

This story by Suresh Bidari was first published in Mongabay on 28 November 2025