Renuka - the Reclining Woman

In beginning of October this year as there were several holidays I decided to hit the mountains and as usual I decided not to go to too touristy a place. I went to Renuka lake located in Sirmour district of Himachal Pradesh. One has to take National Highway 72 from Ambala till Nahan. This distance is about 85 kilometers. The road condition is good and one enters Himachal at Kala Amb. After this one has to take a Major District Road till Renuka. Nahan to Renuka is about 40 kilometers. Some stretches of the road is not good but overall it is not bad.

It took me about eight hours of normal driving to reach Renuka from Delhi. At Renuka I stayed at hotel Renuka which is run by Himachal Tourism Development Corporation. The advantage of this hotel is its location as this is the only hotel located right next to the Renuka lake as one can see from the picture below taken from my room.

View of Renuka Lake from my hotel room

I will blog about the accommodation in another post. This is the biggest lake in Himachal situated at 672 meters above sea level and is named after goddess Renuka. According to the mythology this is the birth place of Lord Parshuram son of Renuka.

Reflections in the Lake

One can take a walk of the whole circumference of the lake, which would be a little over three kilometers. All around there is dense flora and a wild life sanctuary. Additionally boating facilities are available.

Two suns - sunset at Renuka Lake

The sunrise and sunsets, cloud permitting, could be beautiful.

The Renuka lake is supposedly having a shape of a reclining woman. As the shape is not visible at ground level I first drove several kilometers gaining altitude and then even trekked to get a glimpse of this reclining posture. With little bit of imagination mixed with reality (see the photo below) one can see that the shape of the lake is that of a woman reclining.

The Reclining Woman - Renuka

Unfortunately, the size of the lake is shrinking due to silting and weeds especially on the eastern side of the lake. The local authorities must take steps of rectify this else a beautiful place like this would one day cease to exist.