The Madurantakam tank, the third largest in terms of water holding capacity in Kancheepuram district, reportedly reached full tank capacity late on Tuesday. Officials, however, assured the people that there was no danger of breach, as rain had reduced.
According to official sources, the 2,400-acre spread tank received good inflow in the last fortnight when its main feeder, River Kilyar started recording good precipitation in its catchment areas of Vandavasi, Punnai, Kizhkodungalur and Ulundhai in Tiruvannamalai district. The inflow — which was recorded at 1,000 to 1,500 cusecs — came down to around 250 cusecs from Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, the Madurantakam tank also received inflow from other tanks in Uthiramerur taluk, as several of them reached their full capacity and started overflowing. Thus, on November 7 at around 9 p.m., the Madurantakam tank reached its full capacity and the water started overflowing through the excess water provision through the Kilyar to reach the Palar near Edaiyathur-Irumbulicheri islet.
While this is the first time in this monsoon that the tank had reached its full capacity, it had reached its brim twice during the 2015 monsoon when this region particularly, Vandavasi and its surrounding areas in Tiruvannamalai and the Uthiramerur, received copious rain. That year, a flood warning was issued to the hamlets located between Madurantakam and Edaiyathur-Irumbulicheri islet. Earlier, the tank overflowed during the 2011 monsoon season.
As far as Wednesday’s position was concerned, official sources said there was no need to release water into the Kilyar as the inflow into the tank had almost stopped as there was no rain in the catchment areas.
Meanwhile, the farmers in Madurantakam taluk were upset with the government for not taking up any work to desilt the tank despite repeated requests from them in the past.
Claiming that the tank was desilted fully in the late 1960s, the secretary of Madurantakam Cooperative Sugar Mill Farmers Association, R. Muralimohan, pointed out that the former Madurantakam MLA, S.D. Ukkam Chand, had brought this issue to the notice of the Public Works Department officials during the 2015 floods.
Heavily silted
In his representation, the former MLA had pointed out that the tank filled up after a few spells of rain. He had also suggested that officials should take up desilting of the entire tank bed.
In the report submitted to the Collector, the team had observed that they were not able to ascertain the exact storage since the depth of water measured at different places was not uniform because of heavy silt formation. Though the tank had filled up to its brim in the first spell of the northeast monsoon itself, it will not help ryots carry out cultivation of crops twice in an agriculture year in about 2800 acres of agriculture lands, said C. Ellango of Madurantakam.
“In the past, we used to plant two short-term crops as the seeds would be sowed in July-August and harvested well before the onset of the northeast monsoon. The next cultivation would commence with tilling and nursery raising during the northeast monsoon and transplantation immediately after the monsoon. Thus, the second crop would be ready for harvesting in January-February,” he said.
Feeder canal breaches
A huge breach on the bund of the feeder canal to Pon Vilaintha Kalathur (P.V. Kalathur) lake from the Neenjal Maduvu (regulator) near Chengalpattu resulted in a large quantity of water depleting into the sea through the Palar river.
The breach on the canal bund at a distance of about 500 m from the Neenjal Maduvu was noticed three days ago by the local people, who immediately informed the Public Works Department officials.
