R.Manikandan spends his weekends collecting plastic waste and clearing seema karuvelam, an invasive plant species from the ponds in the city. This 36-year-old has been doing this for the past 15 years and is the founder of the Kovai Kulangal Padhukaapu Amaippu, a NGO that cleans water bodies in the city.
Manikandan says that his love for water bodies started at a young age after his mother assigned him the responsibility of drawing water from a public well. “It was near my house at Sundarapuram. I would fill pots early in the morning and carry them home. The well dried up in 2000 and most families in the locality dug bore-wells. The old public well was discarded and over the years, its walls caved in.”
R.Manikandan
Manikandan says that this incident led him to find out more about the local water bodies. “With time, I learnt that the wells in my area dried up as water was not flowing into the Kurichi Kulam pond from the Kurichi check dam. This pond plays an important role in recharging the ground water. But the inlets that carried water were blocked with waste.”
In 2014, Manikandan sent a letter to the local administration explaining the state of the canal. “It was cleaned up within a few weeks, but after a few months, the system was blocked again. I came to know of a group called Kurichi Kulam Padhukaapu Amaippu that cleaned ponds and began to work with them to clean it.”
- Vellalore lake
- Perur lake
- Kamaraswamy lake
- Valankulam lake
- Sengulam
- Vellalore
- Kuniyamuthur water canal
- Vellalore check dam
- Kuniyamuthur check dam
- Chithiraichavadi check dam
- Singanallur check dam
He worked with the group till he founded his NGO in 2017. He created a Facebook page and asked people to volunteer to clean the Perur Periyakulam. “The 300-acre pond was filled with invasive plants and was chocked with plastic waste. More than 900 volunteers joined the initiative and we cleaned the pond in four weeks. Eight tonnes of plastic was collected and it was handed over to the Perur panchayat. In the monsoons of 2018, the pond was full to its brim after 12 years. I will never forget that sight.”
Their hardest project was cleaning up the Vellalore lake. “The encroachment on the canal side and the sludge inside it made the work very difficult. It took 1000 volunteers and 10 weeks to clean it up.” The NGO also planted 2000 native variety trees on the bund of the lake after the clean up. “There are trees like mango, neem, poo arasu and agathi maram that bear fruits, flowers and have medicinal properties. They also attract birds and small animals. We have followed the Miyawaki method and have planted trees at a distance of two feet of each other. We used the water hyacinth cleared by the corporation from the Ukkadam- Valankulam lake as the fertiliser to this plantation.”
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kovaikulangal/
- Website: https://kovaikulangal.org/
- Phone: 8015714790
Suresh T (39) has been volunteering with the Kovai Kulangal Padhukaapu Amaippu from the beginning. He says, “I wanted to do something for Nature and so when I learnt about this NGO, I immediately joined. Now my kids also come with me to clean the water bodies. I feel happy that they are now sensitive to the environmental issues.” D. K Kanagaraj, (45) a textile business man confesses that he never realised the amount of damage humans wreaked on the eco-system. “Now, I try my best to be environment-friendly. I also talk of the importance of conserving water bodies to my family and friends. It is very fulfilling to give back to Nature.”
The team has cleaned six lakes, two canals and four check-dams in the past two years. “We work between 7 :00 am and 9:00 am in the weekends. Now we are cleaning the Singanallur check dam .” The team also runs awareness campaigns in schools, colleges and workplaces. Says Manikandan, “Things are slowly changing. People are now more conscious about preserving Nature. We are now documenting the amount of water flowing into the ponds every year.”
