Teletskoye Lake

A serious environmental and humanitarian disaster may occur in the catchment area of the natural wonder of Russia, one of the largest lakes in the Altai Republic — Teletskoye.

Its area is 223 km2.
The length is 77.8 km.
The maximum width is 5.2 km.
The average depth is 174 m.
The maximum depth is 325 m.
The volume of water is 40 km3.
The height above sea level is 434 m.
The volume of water is 40 km3.
The coastline is 188.6237 km long.

The northern and southern shores are so far apart that they even differ in climatic characteristics.

Ten kilometers from this majestic reservoir, on the Churya River, gold-bearing signs were discovered back in 1938. However, until recently, no one claimed to develop this deposit — the development of the gold ore site by leaching involves the use of sodium cyanide, an extremely toxic compound. If even a small fraction of it gets into the environment, birds, fish, and plants will die. People living in this area and downstream of the Churi river will be forced to leave their pastures, houses, land and water will be poisoned. The poison will enter the Churya, Pyzha, Biya rivers, and then the Ob River, the largest waterway in Western Siberia, with 5 million Russians living in its basin. There is also trouble with Lake Teletskoye, which is included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List as part of the Golden Mountains of Altai complex. But the lake is home to an endemic fish - the Taurus herring (Pravdina whitefish) and many other valuable representatives of the fauna.

Trouble came to Altai in 2016. At that time, the Altai Crown company announced the beginning of gold mining on the Churya River, which had already acquired the right to work in the Teletskoye Lake area in 2005. Public hearings on this issue failed — almost two thousand residents of the Turochak district of the Altai Republic spoke out strongly negatively and did not support the development project. People also created an online petition "Ban gold mining near Lake Teletskoye! Do not let the UNESCO site be poisoned with cyanides" and appealed directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to protect the reservoir. After the president's intervention, the mining story temporarily subsided, but in June 2017, Rosnedra sold the Kemerovo company the right to mine gold on the Maly Kalychak River, 6 km from the lake basin. And Altai Crown does not stop trying to resume work on the Churya River. Residents have once again actively defended their homes and the great lake: they have repeatedly contacted the president's office.

Altyn-Kol is the name given to Teletskoye Lake by the locals in South Altai. Translated, it means "golden lake". Why is it so named? There is a beautiful legend that says that during the great famine in Altai, a local resident tried to exchange a large piece of gold for food, but could not do it — people did not need a cold shiny stone the size of a horse's head, they saved cakes and mare's milk for their families. And then an upset Altai man climbed Mount Altynta and threw a stone into the lake with a swing and jumped after himself. Since then, a huge ingot of gold has been lying somewhere at the bottom of Lake Teletskoye and reminds all people that no precious metal can be exchanged for human life.