Talwara Lake is a small seasonal lake that forms in a depression along the course of the Ghaggar-Hakra River

Ghaggar-Hakra River

The Ghaggar-Hakra River is an intermittent river in India and Pakistan that flows only during the monsoon season. The river is known as Ghaggar before the Ottu barrage and as the Hakra downstream of the barrage...

 in Hanumangarh district

Hanumangarh district

Hanumangarh District is a district of Rajasthan state of western India. The town of Hanumangarh is the district headquarters.-District profile:...

 of Rajasthan

Rajasthan

Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...

 state of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. In his invasion of India in 1398-99 CE, Timur

Timur

Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...

 encamped at the banks of this lake after overpowering Bhatnair Fort in modern-day Hanumangarh

Hanumangarh

Hanumangarh is a city in northern Rajasthan state in western India, situated on the banks of the river Ghaggar, located about 400 km from Delhi. It is the administrative seat of Hanumangarh District...

. Talwara lake is claimed to be the only lake in the arid landscape of Hanumangarh district. The lake forms only for a few months every year during the annual flooding of the Ghaggar-Hakra river in the monsoon

Monsoon

Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...

 season. It is downstream of the Ottu barrage and reservoir

Ottu barrage

The Ottu barrage , sometimes spelled as the Otu barrage and also known as Ottu Head, is a masonry weir on the Ghaggar-Hakra river in Haryana state of India that creates a large water reservoir out of the formerly-small Dhanur lake, located near the village of Ottu, which is about 8 miles from Sirsa...

 (located in the Sirsa district

Sirsa district

Sirsa district is one of the districts of Haryana state, India. Sirsa is the district headquarters, and is located on National Highway 10 and 250 km away from Delhi.-Origin of name:The district is named after its headquarters, Sirsa...

 of Haryana

Haryana

Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...

).