The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Reprieve at last for a battered marshland?

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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Reprieve at last for a battered marshland?

City Bureau

"Declaring part of Pallikaranai swamp as protected area is no final solution"

GOOD TIDINGS: The Pallikaranai swamp, which is in for better times following the State Government's notification declaring a portion of the area as a reserve forest. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan.

CHENNAI : From a wetland that was systematically fragmented, defiled, reclaimed, encroached upon and eventually shrunk to about a tenth of its original area, the Pallikaranai swamp has become an example of how persistent green activism and public involvement can force authorities into action.

What the recent government notification declaring a part of the wetland as a reserve forest means, can best be appreciated only if one understands the long history of abuse the wetland has been subjected to, mostly by government agencies.

Even before the wetland's fate raised concerns, it had been parcelled out by the government for various development and construction activities to organisations such as the railways (for the Mass Rapid Transit System), the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Marketing Board, the Dr. Ambedkar Law University and the Judicial Academy. On the whole there was a loss of 273.56 hectares.

Add to this the 30 ha that was originally allotted for solid waste disposal to the Corporation of Chennai and that was later expanded to around 58 ha; a couple of colleges; a wholesale market; the Perungudi sewage treatment plant; roughly 100 ha allotted to the Slum Clearance Board; and innumerable encroachments, leading to a cumulative loss of a further 474 ha.

R. J. Ranjit Daniels, director, Care Earth, and a long-time resident of Velachery, said: "During the early 1990s whenever there were heavy rains, water used to flow on the road. As there was no proper road connecting Velachery and Tambaram, people used to cut open channels along the stretch to allow excess water to get drained into the marsh. With rapid urbanisation, the swamp became the first casualty."

When the MRTS railway stations were built along the Buckingham Canal in the city, those living on the banks were evacuated. The authorities who were searching for a place to resettle the evicted dwellers zeroed in on the vast waterbody near Velachery, which was classified as `wasteland' by the State Revenue Department.

During the mid-1990s, the western part of the marsh along the Velachery-Tambaram road was filled with debris and reclaimed to form a new residential area named Mylai Balaji Nagar. This was where dwellers evacuated from the Buckingham Canal bank were rehabilitated.

Jayshree Vencatesan, founder associate, Care Earth (which is a non-governmental organisation), said the activities that led to contamination were spearheaded by the government agencies themselves.

The CMWSSB allegedly released 32 million litres of untreated sewage into the marsh each day, which further contaminated the waterbody and the groundwater in and around Velachery. The worst threat, however, came from the dumping of unsegregated garbage by the Chennai Corporation and private agencies, and discharge of untreated sewerage by the Perungudi plant. All this "almost choked the marsh to the point of asphyxiation," according to Ms. Vencatesan. Care Earth was commissioned by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to prepare an action plan to save the marsh.

The swamp has shrunk to 598 ha (from the original 5,000 ha), and it is contiguous with the Velachery marsh.

Experts felt the marsh survived the onslaughts only because of its unique ecology — which is partly saline and largely freshwater. The marsh is sustained by the seasonal hydrology in general and the mixing of sea and freshwater in particular. The marsh is also ecologically significant: it is home to about a total of 225 species of birds, mammals, fish, molluscs, crustaceans and amphibians and 114 flora species.

Wetlands are significant ecological markers for two reasons: they act as flood absorbers and as groundwater rechargers. The death of a wetland will mean that the catchment area — in this case, a significant part of south Chennai — will run dry too.

The first significant government intervention came in October 2005 when the then Chief Secretary presided over the drafting of an 11-point action plan, also based on Care Earth's recommendations. The meeting, attended by agencies such as the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Chennai Metrowater, the Public Works Department, the Chennai City Corporation, the TNPCB, the Alandur Municipality and the Kancheepuram Collectorate, came out with a blueprint to save the marsh, stopping just short of designating it a reserve forest.

While any land allotment out of the marsh stands cancelled, the Chennai Corporation was asked to confine garbage dumping to a designated area and go in for scientific waste disposal. Other measures included eviction of all encroachers, patrolling by Forest Department officials and monitoring by the TNPCB.

The designation of a part of the area as protected land is not the final solution, activists say.

"Though the GO says 647 acres may be declared as reserve forest, the area is still to be demarcated. Garbage dumping and sewage discharge are yet to stop. The entire designated area is still open entry for encroachers, as it has not been fenced off. Patrolling by Forest Department staff is still intermittent.

Until all this happens, hope is still a long way away, says Kumara Raja, convener of the Save Pallikaranai Marshland Forum, a body of activists and organisations involved in the struggle to save the dying marsh.

A.O. Lima Toshi, District Forest Officer, Kancheepuram, said that after declaring the area as reserve land, the Forest Department has started patrolling it. Now the Department is concentrating mainly on two issues — to prevent dumping of garbage and hazardous waste along the margins and poaching.

Studying the water-flow pattern in the marsh and identifying various problems in the declared swamp area are some of the works the authorities are attending to. Plans are afoot to analyse the water quality of the marsh, Mr. Toshi said.

(with inputs from P. Oppili and Vani Doraisamy)

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