{"id":121915,"date":"2026-08-31T16:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T11:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=121915"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:33:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T11:03:00","slug":"chandra-taal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/chandra-taal\/","title":{"rendered":"Chandra Taal, Location, Ramsar Site Status, Biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Chandra Taal is a high-altitude freshwater lake in Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">located in the upper Chandra Valley near Kunzum Pass. Known for its crescent-shaped form and fragile Trans-Himalayan ecosystem, the lake was <\/span><b>designated a Ramsar Site in 2005.<\/b><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Chandra Taal<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Chandra Taal <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is located in the upper Chandra Valley of<\/span><b> Lahaul and Spiti district, Himachal Pradesh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, near the <\/span><b>Kunzum Pass<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lake is situated at <\/span><b>about 4,337 metres above sea level<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, making it an important high-altitude wetland.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its<\/span><b> crescent-shaped<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> form gives it the name Chandra Taal, meaning<\/span><b> \u201cLake of the Moon\u201d.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lake is <\/span><b>associated with the Chandra River system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with the Chandra joining the Bhaga at Tandi to form the Chandrabhaga, or Chenab.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Snowmelt and seasonal precipitation are the main sources of water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the lake.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Located in the <\/span><b>cold, arid Trans-Himalaya<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Chandra Taal supports specialised <\/span><b>high-altitude <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/biodiversity\/\" target=\"_blank\">biodiversity<\/a>, including the snow leopard, Himalayan ibex, blue sheep, red fox and Himalayan marmot.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>The wetland and its surroundings support high-altitude birds, including snowcock, chukar, golden eagle, kestrel and chough, while Ruddy Shelduck<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is also recorded here.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chandra Taal was designated a <\/span><b>Wetland of International Importance under the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ramsar-convention-on-wetlands\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ramsar Convention<\/a> on 8 November 2005<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, covering 49 hectares.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of Himachal Pradesh&#8217;s three Ramsar Sites, the other two being Renuka Wetland and Pong Dam Lake.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lake lies within the<\/span><b> Chandratal Wildlife Sanctuary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which protects the surrounding high-altitude ecosystem.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tourism, camping, littering, overgrazing and vehicular disturbance threaten the fragile wetland, while climate change may affect its snowmelt and water regime.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chandra Taal is a high-altitude Ramsar Site in Himachal Pradesh, known for its crescent shape, Trans-Himalayan ecosystem, biodiversity and wildlife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":121940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[9896],"class_list":["post-121915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general-studies","tag-chandra-taal","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121915"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121957,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121915\/revisions\/121957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}