A poromboke history of Chennai

From being asked to name the poromboke where the protagonists in the Tamil movie Aayutha Ezhuthu meet to guessing the name of the poromboke on which Nageswara Rao Park now lies, the participants and audience at the ‘Poramboke Quiz’ organised by the Vettiver Collective at the Madras Literary Society were treated to some interesting trivia about the city and its environmental history.

“The word poromboke is still used in a negative connotation. There is an urgent need to reclaim such lands which have been neglected and the quiz was also organised as part of our ongoing campaign to save the Ennore creek,” said Pooja Kumar, a volunteer with the collective. As part of the Save Ennore Creek and Kosasthalaiyar campaign, a ‘Poramboke’ song — a satirical take on the city’s vulnerability due to rampant development, as well as the neglect and encroachment of poromboke land — was released in September.

“We’ve been doing a bit of research about the city and its

poromboke lands and are shocked at how many changes have taken place,” said Shyam Renganathan, one of the quizmasters.

Bhargav Prasad, who also conducted the quiz, said that they framed the questions with the aim of not only bringing to light interesting information about the city, but also subtly creating awareness of the many unknown facets and the need for conservation.

The teams consisted of a mix of school and college students, activists, and professionals. “We tend to take everything about poromboke too lightly. It is not just a wasteland. This awareness is especially important before the northeast monsoon sets in as we might not be able to undo constructions, but equipped with information, we can try and prevent encroachments on these lands,” said Seethalakshmi Gopalakrishnan, who won the quiz along with Kannan Narayanan, her husband.