Origin of kondakarla lake in Visakhapatnam district,Andhra Pradesh

Kondakarla lake is the largest natural fresh water lake in Visakhapatnam district. The lake is thought to have been formed in stages. There might have been in the past a ‘U’ shaped rim of hills enclosing a basin with a minor drainage system. With the reduction of hills in relative relief, the drainage got obliterated because of excessive deposition of alluvium leaving a gently sloping piedmont and a central shallow depression. An old course of the Sarada river entered the lake and there are evidences in field indicating the old course having got in and got out of the lake, in the absence of a few geomorphic units along the foot-slopes of the hills. These geomorphic units appear to have been removed by the swerving meander loops of the old course. Again, there are a series of four sandy islands in the lake, the configuration and disposition of which indicate deposition in the inside of the meander loops as point bar deposits, while the old course migrated towards southeast of the basin. The lake is thought to have been farmed in the gently sloping basin partially deepened perhaps by migrating course of tha Sarada river. Aggradation at the northestern part besides cutting off of the meander loop, has created a barrier of low relief resulting in a narrow long basin of internal drainage. Neither the structural trend of the hills nor any other features indicate synclinal or anticlinal troughs, ruling out any structural origin for this lake.