Udaipur, The strengthening El Niño event is expected to intensify during August–October 2026. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), it is likely to bring above-normal temperatures across much of the world and significant shifts in rainfall patterns. The impact will not be uniform everywhere—some regions may experience increased drought risk while others may face excessive rainfall. Against this changing climate backdrop, Udaipur needs to prepare for rising temperatures, longer dry spells and intense rainfall occurring over shorter periods. At the Sunday Lake Dialogue, lake conservationists and environmental activists expressed concern that Udaipur's own natural climate-resilience systems are being weakened. Shrinking wetland areas, increasing concretisation of catchments, disruption of natural drainage channels and degradation of the Aravalli hills are increasing the city's vulnerability to climate-related extremes. Principal of Vidya Bhawan Polytechnic and lake-river expert Dr. Anil Mehta said, “We must stop viewing lakes merely as reservoirs for water storage and recreation. They are Udaipur's natural climate-adaptation infrastructure and its ecological safety shield.” Dr. Mehta said that Udaisagar filling up and its gates being opened before Fatehsagar, Pichola and the Chikalwas Pickup Weir overflow should not be dismissed as a routine hydrological event. It could be an important signal of changes in the hydrology of the entire lake-catchment system and requires scientific investigation. He said that two important apprehension need to be urgently investigated. First, is increasing concretisation within the catchment causing a larger proportion of rainfall to reach Udaisagar rapidly as surface runoff, instead of infiltrating into the soil and contributing to groundwater recharge?

Second, has the lake's actual storage capacity declined because of sedimentation, earth filling or illegal changes in land use over the years for commercial constructions ?

“The question is not merely why the gates of Udaisagar were opened. The larger question is why water reached Udaisagar so rapidly and how much actual storage capacity the lake has today,” Dr. Mehta said. He called for a latest Bathymetric Survey, Sedimentation Assessment, Catchment-wise Water Balance, Rainfall–Runoff Analysis and GIS/Remote Sensing-based Land-use Change Assessment of Udaisagar and its catchment. This would establish how much rainfall was received, how much water was absorbed by the catchment, how much reached Udaisagar as surface runoff and whether the lake's effective storage capacity has changed. Dr. Mehta said that it is scientifically inadequate to plan for individual lakes in isolation. The entire system—from Madar-Badi through Fatehsagar, Pichola and Swaroop Sagar to Udaisagar—is an interconnected hydrological system. The Rajasthan High Court has also emphasised the need to view wetlands and water bodies as interconnected ecological systems and has called for scientific assessment of wetland condition, catchments, encroachments, pollution, groundwater recharge and conservation requirements. Dr. Mehta said, “Udaipur should no longer measure only how quickly a lake fills. It must also measure how much water the catchment is absorbing, how much is flowing as runoff, and how much natural storage capacity the lake has lost. Dr. Mehta said Udaipur's biggest emerging challenge is that of “water and heat extremes.” Longer dry periods can intensify water scarcity, while intense rainfall can generate large volumes of runoff within a short period. Increasingly paved and concretised surfaces reduce infiltration and can increase surface runoff. This may simultaneously contribute to Urban Heat Island effects during hot periods and Urban Flooding during intense rainfall events. Therefore, he said, protecting open soil, natural drainage channels, lake catchments and wetlands is no longer merely an environmental concern—it is a matter of urban water security and disaster-risk reduction. Former member of the Lake Development Authority Tej Shankar Paliwal said that treating Udaipur's lakes and wetlands as vacant land available for construction would prove extremely costly in the future. Filling wetlands, constructing within their catchments or obstructing natural drainage weakens the city's own climate-adaptation capacity, he said. He also stressed the importance of conserving natural vegetation along lake edges because it can help control erosion, intercept sediment and pollutants, and provide habitat for birds and other biodiversity. Social thinker Nand Kishore Sharma said that construction approvals associated with tourism should incorporate Ecological Carrying Capacity and Water Budgeting. The city needs to scientifically determine how many hotels, tourists, vehicles and how much water consumption, sewage and solid waste its ecological systems can sustain. Educationist Kushal Rawal demanded a comprehensive audit of the entire lake system from Madar-Badi to Udaisagar, covering water balance, sedimentation and actual water-spread area. He also called for a comparative assessment of changes in catchment land use, built-up area and water-spread areas over the past two to three decades. Young lake conservationist Vinod Kumawat said Udaipur must now protect its hills, open soil, natural drainage channels and catchment areas. “It is not enough to see water in a lake and celebrate. We must also protect the landscape through which that water reaches the lake,” he said. Senior citizen Drupad Singh said that if wetlands, the Aravallis and catchments are protected, Udaipur will be much better equipped to withstand changing weather patterns.