Peacock Lake (Surajkund)

Peacock Lake is the low-key, wilder end of the historic Surajkund–Anangpur waterwork — a modest sheet of water lying downstream and just southwest of Surajkund, cradled in the scrub-covered folds of the Aravalli hills of northern Faridabad.

• It takes its name from the peafowl that pick their way through the surrounding thorn forest, and unlike the crowd-drawing Surajkund reservoir alongside it, this is a small, largely unmanicured pocket with no boating jetties, no resort and no ticket window.
• What it offers instead is stillness, scrub-forest birdsong and the rare feeling, this close to Delhi, of standing inside a living wildlife corridor rather than beside a manicured park.
• The draw here is quiet birding.
• In the cooler months the reed-fringed margins pull in wagtails, sandpipers and the odd raft of migratory ducks, while the surrounding kikar and Aravalli scrub hold parakeets, sunbirds, bulbuls, prinias, babblers and, of course, the peacocks that give the lake its name.
• Raptors ride the thermals over the ridgelines above.
• It is very much a slow-travel, binoculars-and-patience spot rather than a set-piece sight, best enjoyed on foot at an unhurried pace with your camera ready and your voice low.
• Ecologically, the lake matters more than its size suggests.
• It sits within the Northern Aravalli leopard wildlife corridor, the roughly 200-km green thread that links Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan to the Delhi Ridge, carrying leopards, jackals, nilgai and hyena through a rapidly urbanising landscape.
• That wildness is the reason for a genuine word of caution: this is not a fenced, patrolled attraction.
• Leopard movement is documented across these Faridabad hills, so avoid the dawn and dusk edges alone, keep to open tracks, do not venture deep into the scrub, and ideally visit with a local guide or in a small group during full daylight.
• For vegetarian travellers the lake itself has no stalls, so treat it as a morning outing and eat before or after in Faridabad, where pure-vegetarian dining is easy.
• Haldiram's in Sector 21C (roughly 5 km) is the closest reliable pure-veg option for a chaat-and-thali break, and Bikanervala near Bata Chowk / Sector 82 (about 7 km) is a dependable sweets-and-snacks stop; carry your own water, fruit and a packed vegetarian snack for the walk, as there is nothing on site.
• Come for the birds, the scrub-forest calm and the novelty of true Aravalli wildness on Delhi's doorstep — but come respectfully, tread lightly and remember you are a guest in a leopard's corridor.