DON’T GO JUMPING IN LAKES!
Hello friends, my name is Aloka and my best friend is my naughty but nice dog Pippin. He goes with me everywhere and we have wonderful adventures together. The other evening, when the afternoon sun had disappeared and the air was filled with a cool evening breeze, Pippin and I took a walk by the Beira Lake. We were wondering how a lake happened to be in the heart of such a busy city as Colombo. Do you know much about lakes? Let’s go and find out!
Alake is a still body of water, surrounded by land. Rivers, which are flowing bodies of water feed into and out of the lake. Lakes are usually formed inland and are not part of the ocean and are very distinct to their counterpart lagoons. There are two types of lakes; natural lakes and manmade lakes. Natural lakes are usually found in mountainous regions, where they are formed through the melting of glaciers or from waterfalls. Since Sri Lanka is a rich fertile land with luscious vegetation, we have a fair number of lakes, natural as well as manmade. The most famous and largest natural lake in Sri Lanka is the Bolgoda Lake. It is predominately a freshwater lake and covers two thirds of the Kalutara district and runs from Anguruwatota to Piliyandala. The lake that Pippin and I were taking a walk by was the Beira Lake which is famously located in the heart of Colombo. The Beira Lake is a manmade lake created by the invading Portuguese in the 1500s, in order to serve as a moat that protected their base in Colombo from the hostile locals. They added many hidden dangers within the lake, such as large crocodiles. After the Dutch laid siege and captured the Lake it was expanded and several islands were formed on it artificially. Some of them, such as Slave Island, were large enough to have a village and/or coconut plantations. People started inhabiting the islands and traffic over the water increased. However it was mostly used for political prisoners, as was the case in Slave Island, or agriculture mainly due to the crocodiles that still infested the lake. After the British took over, they cleared the lake of the menacing crocodiles and developed the surrounding banks. Beira Lake became famous for a number of recreational activities, such as rowing and yachting. Slave Island was cleared of its prison fixings; and Ceylon's first botanical garden, the Kew Gardens, was opened there in 1810. The seedlings were provided by the Royal Botanic Gardens in London. It was primarily used to ferry goods into and out of the city. The Lake used to be 100 hectares in size but now has been reduced to 60 hectares due to the construction of buildings and homes by the riverside. What interesting facts about the famous Beira Lake of Colombo!