Neither Tilicho nor the new lake are highest in Nepal or world

Mohan Mainali / July 26, 2019

Tilicho lake in Manang pictured in 2012.             Photo courtesy: Roman Yahodka/Wikimedia commons

On Thursday and Friday, several news websites and newspapers published reports claiming that a new lake has been found in Manang district in higher altitude than the Tilicho lake. The reports have claimed that Tilicho, which lies at 4,919 meters, was so far the world’s highest lake.

According to the news reports, the new lake lies at 5,002 meters above the sea level.

However, this is not the first time Nepali print and online media have promoted Tilicho as the highest lake in the world.

In fact, Tilicho and the new lake are not even among the top 10 highest lakes in the world.

ICIMOD, a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge-sharing center serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayas, has prepared a list of “potentially dangerous glacial lakes” of Nepal. Twelve glacial lakes on that list are at higher altitudes than Tilicho. And, 11 of those lakes lie at higher altitudes than the new lake found in Manang. ICIMOD has only listed out “potentially dangerous glacial lakes” in Nepal. So, there could be more lakes at even higher locations in Nepal.

Please see ICIMOD’s list of “potentially dangerous glacial lakes” at http://geoportal.icimod.org/?map=nepalglakes.

In the ICIMOD map, the glacial lakes 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, and 21 are located at higher altitudes than Tilicho. Except for number 5 on the list, all others are at even higher altitudes than the new found lake.

Based on the ICIMOD’s map, South Asia Check has prepared a table showing lakes in Nepal that are in higher altitudes than Tilicho.

This material is copyrighted but may be used for any purpose by giving due credit to southasiacheck.org.

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