The Chennai Corporation has set the ball rolling on the handing over of an additional 300 acres of Pallikaranai Marshland on the northern portion of the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam radial road to the Forest Department as part of the restoration of the marsh.
The Corporation Council had passed a resolution few months ago permitting handing over of 445 acres of Pallikaranai Marshland on the southern side of the radial road too The Corporation has asked the Kancheepuram district administration to fix the market value of land in Pallikaranai for the purpose. After the 300 acres is handed over, the Chennai Corporation will construct a Reinforced Cement Concrete wall to demarcate the 200 acres of the Pallikaranai Marsh that will be used for Solid Waste Management and to prevent further environmental damage of the marshland.
The civic body is planning to start remediation of the land where garbage is being dumped. This move will facilitate the integrated management of the Pallikaranai marshland towards its pursuit of being declared a Ramsar Site. The Forest Department made the preliminary move last year to get the Pallikaranai marshland declared as a Ramsar site by submitting a compliance report to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The declaration of the marshaland area as a Ramsar site would be a step towards conserving it as a natural wastewater purification system, decrease water pollution, preserve biological diversity, check floods, mitigate the effect of cyclones and tidal waves and provide space for recreation. A master plan for restoration of the entire Pallikarani marshland has been readied and the area is likely to become an eco-park with a range of facilities.
The southern portion of the Pallikaranai Marshland has been notified as a Reserve land under the Tamil Nadu Forest Act, 1882.
The landowning agencies of the marshland include the Chennai Corporation, Forest Department, Public Works Department and the Revenue Department.
Perungudi, Velachery, Siruseri, Okkkiam Thoraipakkam, Madipakkam and Pallikaranai are some of the residential localities around the marshland.
