The Nainital Lake, situated in the central Himalayas of India, is an important water body and a major tourist spot. This study aims to identify factors or processes that determine the water quality of the lake. For this purpose, water samples from two different points were collected—highly polluted (Mallital) and least polluted (Tallital)—to represent the actual level of pollution in the lake in four different seasons (January, April, July, and October). The collected samples were analyzed for different physical and chemical parameters. In order to assess the state of the lake’s water quality, the samples were compared with the standard water quality values. Turbidity, electrical conductivity, total alkalinity, and heavy metal (lead, iron, and copper) concentration were found to be above the desirable limit of the prescribed national and international standards in all four seasons at both Mallital and Tallital. Reasons affecting the water quality were found to be natural (thermal stratification and lead-bearing rocks) and anthropogenic (domestic sewage, runoff, and illegal construction activities in the vicinity of lake). Various lake restoration alternatives/interventions have been suggested that can lead to an improvement in the lake’s water quality, such as afforestation, phytoremediation, and sediment basin. 1. Introduction Nainital city is one of the major tourist attractions in the northern part of India. The lake provides water to 40,000 local inhabitants [1] and thousands of tourists visiting it every year [2] who use the water for different purposes like drinking and for recreational activities [3, 4]. Increasing local population, logarithmic increase in the tourist flux in Nainital, and the concomitant mushrooming of a large number of hotels in the catchment area have severely affected the water resources and biodiversity of this watershed [5, 6]. According to Singh et al. [7], open sewers disposing large quantities of sewage in the lake are definitely causing a detrimental effect on the lake water quality. Other anthropogenic activities such as illegal construction, litter, domestic discharge, and recreational use of lake water are major concerns for sedimentation and eutrophication of the lake water [1]. Thus, considering it as imperative, this comprehensive primary water quality monitoring study of the Nainital Lake has been undertaken. The main objective of this paper is to assess the state of water quality of the Nainital Lake by carrying out a comprehensive monitoring exercise to identify the contributing factors for the existing water
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