Vol XVII MM 01.Pmd

Registered with the Reg. No. TN/PMG (CCR) /814/06-08 Registrar of Newspapers Licence to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. WPP 506/06-08 Rs. 5 per copy (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI INSIDE Short N Snappy Kotturpuram in the 60s MADRAS Travellers tales Presidency College buildings MUSINGS The Birth of Round Table Vol. XVII No. 01 April 16-30, 2007 Can Adyar Creek eco park ignore estuary? (By A Special Correspondent) ow can you ensure a On December 22, 2003, the Hsuccessful eco park with- State Government handed over I am missing you so much and out sustaining its feed water sys- 58 acres of the area to the citys dont know what to do without you tems and the natural wealth Corporation to develop it into darling! around it? Thats the question an eco park modelled on Bye bye love, that has to be answered before Tezozomac in Mexico. Entries hello . peace! work can begin on the Adyar to the park were planned from Bags are packed, ill-used teens Creek Eco Park. Greenways Road and South Ca- sulking over not being al- Chennai is one of the few cit- nal Bank Road. The GO speci- lowed to take a certain outfit ies in the world to have a large fied that the flow of water along The new enclosure for the proposed eco park. (Its too much for your expanse of wetlands within it. the Creek would not be dis- grandparents, dear) are The Adyar Creek, a natural es- turbed, no concrete construc- the conservation of hicle (SPV), Adyar Creek Eco smiling again, AWOL tick- tuarine ecosystem, extends over tion would be allowed and that waterbodies. Work began on Park Limited, was set up to har- ets have been located its 350 acres right in the heart of the dumping of debris and the clearing the land of bushes and ness and channel the funds for time for the summer holi- the city, from the sandbar near discharge of sewage would be improving the quality of top soil development. An Adyar Creek days to begin. the sea to the Chettinad Palace curtailed. Construction of a 2.5 with earth being brought in Trust was set up with the Chief In todays world, it isnt always from lake beds in other parts of Secretary as the Chairman and Dad whos left behind, as and beyond. Less than thirty km compound wall at a cost of Mom sometimes cannot get years ago, it was rich with lush Rs 1.24 crore to protect the area the city. Secretaries of Highways, For- away from work too. mangrove growth and home to began in mid 2004. It was also The budget for creating the ests, Fisheries, Municipal So, families compromise, divid- a variety of flora and fauna. decided that around 14 acres of park, Rs. 60 crore, was passed in ing themselves into sections, However, encroachments, the the land would be devoted to 2005 and a special purpose ve- (Continued on page 2) rejoining later like pieces of presence of cattle sheds, dump- jigsaw puzzles. ing of debris from the surround- What of those who stay behind, forlorn in a suddenly empty ing residential areas and 16 house? points from where untreated Lets see now. sewage is let in have caused the Whats happening in To begin with, the silence. The Creek to become polluted. The blessed, healing silence mangroves have vanished and which wraps itself around as for the species of animals and you like an old, familiar Pallikaranai? birds, only the hardiest have blanket you thought you had survived. lost long ago. Too quiet? (By Shobha Menon) Then its nice to be able to Wetlands need to be pro- tected as per the Ramsar Con- reach for the TV remote each, smiled a grimy soot en- without having to grapple it vention of 1971 to which India l Pallikaranai wetland is a fresh water swamp and is one of the cased Valli. from someone who is is also a signatory. Yet the last few remaining natural ecosystems in the city of Chennai. Just a kilometre ahead on the younger and stronger than Adyar Creek has remained It has been a home for naturally occurring plants (61 species), Thoraipakkam-Pallikaranai you. You can watch an old largely neglected. Classified in fish (46 species), birds (106 species), butterflies (7 species), Road, a builder welcomes you to movie, and sink into goo-ey 1895 as poramboke land, nostalgia without swatting reptiles (21 species) and some exotic floating vegetation such perfect living God forbid, chances are that a century later away protests and smart re- as water hyacinth and water lettuce, which are less extensive living in this luxury can actually it would have been completely marks. now and highly localized. Recent reports of the appearance of be a sin! Further down, beside built over, like the Lake Area in No one bangs on the bathroom the white-spotted garden skink, for the first time in a mound of filth, a roadside ven- Nungambakkam, had it not door. Tamilnadu, and Russells viper, the largest and the most wide- dor of tender coconuts dili- Youve earned a break from been for the Consumer Action spread among Asian vipers, confirm its invaluable ecological gently wipes each shiny before playing telephone operator Group which in 1997 chal- status. Fish such as dwarf gourami and chromides that are the passing car windows roll to your kids especially lenged the Governments deci- widely bred and traded worldwide for aquaria, occur naturally down. The smoke gets worse as those old enough to have sion to build a memorial for Dr. here. Besides, the windowpane oyster, mud crab, mullet, half fearfully complicated social the day progresses, simply be- B.R. Ambedkar on the land. beak and green chromide are some of the estuarine fauna lives. cause more ugly mounds of plas- The area already housed the present in the marsh. The car is yours only yours, tic and thermocole plates that training centre of the Fisheries like your programmes. are remnants of some fancy You eat when (and what) you Department. The High Court couple of weeks ago at the being insidiously suffocated by party fuel more poisonous fires. want, switch off lights only in 2000 upheld the decision to Asite, I watched smoke bil- hydrangea. Dotting white the In 2002, there were 593 when youre sleepy, and run build the memorial, but not to lowing across the marsh, a sickly thick black smoke were a few hectares of this wetland of in- the fan at any speed you like. the extent originally envisaged disgusting black over the many egrets. And among piles of dirty ternational significance; by Hmmm not too shabby. and directed the Government Maybe summer holidays should Rosy (more Dirty) Pastors, sit- garbage by the roadside, a whole 2006 more than 170 hectares to preserve the remaining wet- come around more often. ting on a scorched-to-death tree family scrounged for scrap. We have been totally decimated, Ranjitha Ashok lands. beside a portion of the marsh make about Rs.100 per day (Continued on page 4) CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS April 16-30, 2007 A City caught in a bandh he Man from Madras the Gemini Circle it was clear enough of such schemes knows Bhaktvatsalam Road (Warren Chennai art deco T Musings had assumed that that the traffic on NH Road exactly what will happen. Road) is spelt variously as bandhs were a thing of the past was moving at a snails pace. In Saplings will be planted at cer- Bhaktavacchalam Road and hile the city is the home as far as the city of Madras that fact, it would be no exaggera- tain spots with much fanfare Bhaktavatsalam Road. Can we Wturf for Indo-Saracenic, is Chennai was concerned as tion to say that it had ground to and speechmaking. A protec- please have some standar- Madras that is Chennai has also EVERYONE had begun to talk a halt. Policemen did their best tive cage will be placed around disation and quality control? much to offer by way art deco of our city as a 21st Century to wave the vehicles forward, each sapling and a gardener buildings. The Man from Ma- city. However, MMM was but with no space to move from the Corporation will wa- dras Musings was privy to a quickly disabused of the notion ahead there was no progress ter the plants for a few days. The ICF area conversation between two of when on the last day of the fi- whatsoever. After a good half Then this will be stopped. The he Railways are being the citys leading architects and nancial year 2006-07 a bandh an hour of inching forward, saplings will die out and after Ttouted as a success story in it was their view that Art Deco was called by the powers- MMM came abreast of a wed- that the cages will vanish. And India and the profits made this was the first major style to have that-be, no less. ding procession complete with that will be that till the next year are said to be phenomenal, come into the city after Indo- With transport cut off, shops a bridegroom on a horse in years budget. with even Harvard University Saracenic and that there was a and offices forced to close, and front of one the big hotels on What we need is a fund for and MIT commending their time between the 1930s and banks and other public sector the road.

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