“Are you sure you have enough to take care of yourself? I can lend you some, you know?”
The share auto rickshaw driver looks worriedly at my hippie profile, as I hand over the fare in one rupee coins — I am five short. The comment, well-intentioned and insulting at the same time, bounces off me. Nothing can get me down today, for I am at the entrance of Mahindra World City, on my way to explore the Kolavai lake, one of Chengalpattu’s many waterbodies.
Lake Kolavai is home to many winged migrants, as the Madras Naturalist Society discovered during their annual waterfowl census. “We conduct our census in January, which is the ideal time for migration of birds such as the whiskered tern, Indian spotbilled ducks, moorhens, coots, small waders and so on. One of our birders, Bhanumathi R even found a damselfly — a lily squatter which previously had not been recorded in the area,” gushes M Yuvan, who led the survey.
When the lake is full, with the right tools, these birds can be spotted from far and wide. Its brimming waters too are visible from the railway line — the Paranur and Chengalpattu railways stations offer a beautiful view. Today, however, I plan to take a closer look.
Walking all day
It is a straight route off the Chennai-Nagapattinam highway into the Mahindra World Township, until the commercial zone begins. The township is India’s first Special Economic Zone, and houses companies such as Mahindra, Cap Gemini, Infosys and others. This in turn has given rise to multiple dining establishments around the area. If you are here around lunchtime, step inside the humble looking Punnu da Dhaba for an authentic Punjabi meal.
Fuelling up, I take the right before the commercial zone begins, towards the Paranur railway station. Near the station are multi-storey apartments, housing people who work at the aforementioned companies. The long-winding cemented road here is best experienced on foot. You can take your two wheeler or four wheeler, of course — the roads are smooth and wide. However, remember there are few places left in the city which offer such clear, traffic-free pathways for pedestrians.
The road is guarded by thickets on the left, and dusty bylanes on the right, generally leading up to temples. I keep a lookout towards the left, as this is where the lake lies. The bushes occasionally spread thin, and you can peep into them, to see what lies on the other side.
On one such spot, I notice a parked bike — a sign that someone had made their way past the shrubbery here. From the other side of the thicket, I can hear excited voices growing louder. I brush aside curtains of leaves and prickly branches and gingerly walk on the slope of red soil, until the shrubbery recedes and gives way to rolling floodplains.
Hitherto unseen, the slushy green field meets the Kolavai river, beyond which lie the Paranur hills.
A group of young men are playing an intense game of football on this isolated patch. It was their vigorous cheers and call outs to each other that I had just heard. Cows graze at the outfield, swishing their tails half-heartedly. Dragonflies rise like drones, and the term ‘idyllic’ takes on a new meaning.
I try to get closer to the lake but it has just rained and the bunds are dangerously soft. When the earth begins sucking my feet inside, I give up and step back.
Buzzing old world
“A good percentage of our water comes from the eris of Chengalpattu, including this one. Like the Palar river, (on whose plains the Kolavai lies) this lake is also rain-fed,” says Yuvan.
The lake is home to the South Asian carp, stinging catfish, and conger eel. Most of the surrounding land is now overrun by invasive prosopis juliflora , as it happens whenever the river is full. The weed, native to Mexico, takes over the indigenous vegetation.
The bed of weeds however makes this field ideal for running, jumping, leaping or even rolling around on the ground. Something that the footballers are taking full advantage of. The spot is even ideal for day-picnics, as long as the weather is dry.
The area also has snakes of different kinds, especially the checkered keelback, an Asiatic water snake. “Chengalpattu is home to many snakes. I even saw the olive keelback snake once six to seven years ago. Nowadays, you can barely see them; they are very sensitive to water contamination,” says Yuvan.
Rampant encroachment of Chengalpattu’s lakes worsened the impact of the 2015 floods. “We do not allow water to percolate, and cut off the natural drainage system. That reduces the flood buffer,” he says. When I walk back to the concrete road leading up to the Paranur railway station, it is with a renewed sense of biodiversity that the lake spawns.
The footballers too have called it a day. “Next week, we will play cricket,” says one of them as they wrap up the game.
The place is best visited in daytime, as there are few streetlights here.
