Nallagandla Lake

Fed by rain, Nallagandla Lake is a natural water body on the north-western fringe of Hyderabad, bordered by Hyderabad Central University on the east and by housing on its other sides. Its bed covers around 90 acres, with a permanent marsh at the south-western corner. The Nalla Pochamma temple, honouring the goddess regarded as the local village deity, stands on the western ghat, and residents gather here for Diwali, Chhath Puja, Bathukamma and Ganesh Chaturthi; idols are immersed in a separate pond at the north-western corner.

eBird, the Cornell Lab database, lists it as a birding hotspot. Cormorants, egrets, grey herons, white-throated kingfishers, coots, moorhens and grey-headed swamphens live here, and spot-billed pelicans and painted storks arrived in 2021. Bee-eaters, coucals, Indian robins, bushchats and munias are among the land birds seen around the shore, while local fishermen catch rohu and catla. Building around the shore remains a threat, and in 2018 the High Court barred construction within the full-tank area.