Tal Katora

 memorial, monument, lake, interesting place

It's a lake. Just behind the jai niwas garden.The Talkatora (Cup Lake) or as visitors call it the Alligator Tank, lies at the northern extremity of the Palace Gardens and immediately beyond the Badal Mahal (Cloud Palace). There was always a lake in this place, and in the days when Amber was still the Capital the forests about the lake provided a favourite hunting ground for the Chiefs. What is now the Badal Mahal was then a Shikar Odi. This Palace may therefore claim to be the oldest building in Jaipur. The tank is now crowded with alligators. These are regularly fed at the Darbar expenses. They are quite tame and come up the steps of the tank to receive food from the hands of the attendants.
A pastime occasionally indulged in is the feeding of the alligators with a bait tied to a long rope. This is thrown out into the tank and there is soon a battle royal for its possession. The successful combatant having bolted the bait, rope and all, a tug-of-war ensure between him and the men holding the rope. It takes many men to haul the monster on shore. Finally he bites the rope through and escapes.”
Later in 1948, traveler B. L. Dhama, who wrote “A Guide to Jaipur and Amber”, described Talkatora thus: “From the vicinity of (Maharaja Ishwari Singh’s) cenotaph a view of the Talkatora may also be had … enclosed on three sides by broad embankments and on the fourth or the south side by Badal Mahal … The embankments were once laid out with fine gardens. They were approached fro the Palace by the corridors on either side of the Badal Mahal.
The north bank of the Talkatora is odorned with octagonal pavilions placed at the corners and a fine curvilinear roofed pavilion in the middle. Between the central pavilion and the corner chatris are built rectangular pavilions with flat roofs and their openings filled with jails.
Here in the tank the immersion ceremony of Gangaur and Teej is performed which is watched by the Royalty in the midst of amusement, dances and singing in durbar held on the occasion.
The Talkatora, situated in the midst of the lake, the Raja Mull-ka-Talao, when full with water and with its inmates, the crocodiles, must have indeed appeared to be like what its name implies, namely, a cup floating in a lake.
The lake of Raja Mull, named after the eminent prime minister of the founder of the city, spreads over an extensive area. It receives the drainage of the north part of the city and that of Nahargarh hill. The latter is first received into a catchment area by twelve huge and massively built arched openings placed at skew in the fortification wall and then discharged into the lake by means of three rows of four square orifices arranged one over the other, thus making in all twelve orifices which are called Bara Mori (Big Channels). The Bara Mori are situated at the foot of the Nahargarh Fort and close to the Tiba or the sand-mound of Fatehram which fall ahead on the road from Gangauri Bazar to Brahmpuri, while the sluice of the lake exists by the north side of Madhobilas.
The ravine along the foot of the Nahargarh hill is called Nandi (nadi) or river which flowed full in the time of good rains into the Raja Mull-ka-Talao. The population along the Nandi is largely or exclusively of cloth printers.”
Today, the Talkatora lake, if it can be called that anymore, is usually barren, its famous crocodiles a distant memory. Collector canals that were the life line of its water supply have been blocked by urban development. The area next to Talkatora Lake was used as a major dumping ground for the city’s solid wastes until 1991 . Commercialization of the northern part of the lake resulted in further disposal of wastes into the lake.
A 1999 study by the Malaviya Engineering College found significant amounts of pollution in the lake, accounting for the black color of the water, the surrounding odor, the persistence of mosquitoes and risk of epidemics. A mitigation plan was submitted to the Jaipur Municipal Corporation that included covering the drains to prevent open defecation, developing a solid waste disposal system including scheduling a solid waste pick-up by the Municipality, maintaining the existing sewer as well as a planning a comprehensive public education program. These improvements are needed urgently.by hari makar