Badkhal Lake

Badkhal Lake is a natural lake located in Badkhal village near Faridabad in Haryana, set against the Aravalli Hills about 32 kilometres southeast of Delhi. Formed in a natural depression and supplemented by an earthen bund, it was once a popular resort lake. Surrounded by rocky hills and scrub forest, it is part of the Surajkund-Badkhal tourist circuit and is known for seasonal water, birdlife and its Haryana Tourism resort complex.

Visitors can expect a wide, shallow lake basin set among the rocky Aravalli Hills on the outskirts of Faridabad. The lake holds water mainly during and after the monsoon and is often dry in other seasons, exposing a lake bed surrounded by scrub and hills. The Haryana Tourism Badkhal Lake Tourist Complex overlooks the lake. Visitors can walk along the bund and lakeside, enjoy views of the hills, photography, birdwatching in season, and picnicking in the surrounding open area.

Badkhal Lake occupies a natural depression in the Aravalli Hills where an earthen bund was constructed in 1947 to retain rainwater. In the 1960s and 1970s it was developed as a popular resort lake with a Haryana Tourism complex. In subsequent decades water inflow declined due to reduced rainfall, groundwater depletion and mining in the Aravallis, and the lake is now largely seasonal.

Badkhal Lake has long been a well-known picnic and recreation spot for residents of Faridabad and the Delhi NCR region and forms part of the Surajkund-Badkhal leisure circuit promoted by Haryana Tourism.