Which of the following is the largest artificial lake of Asia?

Correct — C. Bhopal's Upper Lake, or Bhojtal, is the built lake in this set. It was created by damming the Kolans river and is credited to Raja Bhoj of the Paramara dynasty in the eleventh century.

Chilika, Dal and Naini are natural water bodies. The word that decides the question is artificial, not largest, and option (c) is the one that was made by people.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Chilika Lake — Chilika is a natural brackish lagoon on the Odisha coast, linked to the Bay of Bengal and India's largest coastal lagoon. Nothing about it is man-made.
• (b)
  Dal Lake — Dal Lake at Srinagar is a natural Himalayan lake, known for houseboats and floating gardens rather than for any dam.
• (d)
  Naini Lake — Naini Lake at Nainital is a natural lake in a hollow of the Kumaon hills, and its crescent shape is a landform, not an engineered one.

Everything here turns on one word: artificial, meaning made by damming or excavation rather than formed by nature.

Bhopal's Upper Lake is the standard Indian example. An earthen dam across the Kolans river impounds it, tradition dates it to Raja Bhoj in the eleventh century, and with the Lower Lake it makes up the Bhoj Wetland, a Ramsar site.

Screen the options for how each lake was formed before you compare their sizes — that order settles the question faster than any measurement.

Key facts

• Bhopal's Upper Lake, also called Bhojtal, is a man-made lake credited to Raja Bhoj of the Paramara dynasty.
• It was formed by damming the Kolans river and lies in Madhya Pradesh.
• The Upper and Lower Lakes of Bhopal together form the Bhoj Wetland, a Ramsar site.
• Chilika in Odisha is a natural brackish lagoon and one of India's earliest Ramsar sites.

Common traps

• Dal Lake is the lake most candidates picture first, and it is natural.
• Largest and oldest are different superlatives, and both get attached to Bhojtal in popular writing.

No directly related past PYQ was found.