Much to the delight of naturalists and residents’ welfare associations, the Pallikaranai marsh, which was hitherto indiscriminately encroached upon, is slowly getting much-needed protection.
Forest officials have built a 1,600-m bund along the western part on Velachery Main Road. They have also deepened and desilted 1,800 sq m on the stretch and planned to erect a see-through fence along the road.
The works, which began in August 2016, were completed in May. Creation of bunds along Velachery Main Road involved removal of Prosopis juliflora trees, an invasive species spread over a sizeable area. A water storage area was created inside the Pallikaranai marsh to retain the water available in the vicinity. This has attracted birds from far away places such as Kutch and Gujarat, bird watchers said.
Work on laying tiles for the bund to benefit walkers will be completed in the next couple of months, sources with Forest Department said.
The fence, another officer said, would help to check dumping of garbage and enable bird watchers view the marsh from the roadside. The government had sanctioned funds in 2016-17 for carrying out this project, he said.
More than 12 hectares comprising land in Ambedkar Nagar, Pallikaranai, Mahalakshmi Nagar in Mettukkuppam, Kamatchi Nagar and Quaid-E-Milleth Nagar behind the NIOT campus and Kallukkuttai area in K.P. Kandhan Nagar had been swallowed by land sharks and had to be retrieved.
This needed clearance from the Revenue and Police departments, Forest department sources said.
To remove the 25 concrete houses and more than 800 asbestos-roof temporary houses from the encroached area, the Forest department approached the Kancheepuram Collector who has formed a committee for the purpose, the official said.
Residents of Pallikaranai said that preventing sewage tankers dump raw sewage in the marsh is the need of the hour. If this is allowed, the groundwater quality would further deteriorate in the neighbouring residential areas.
