Coimbatore-based Karthic SS has shot a documentary, Shining Lakes of Kancheepuram: A Reflection, that takes the viewer on a journey from Tambaram, the gateway of Chennai, to Oragadam, the city’s industrial hub, through nine lakes and Adyar river. 

“Conserving water is the need of the hour in today’s urbanised world, and lakes and rivers are the primary sources of drinking water,” begins Karthic who has produced, photographed and written the documentary. The 21-minute-long documentary, which is in Tamil and English, has been edited by Shamir Mohamed and voiced by Helmut Karrasch. 

The film recollects memories of traditional water management in existence since medieval times from native people. “An ingenious system was in place to conserve water and irrigate agricultural land. Today, with farmers selling off their lands and lakes being encroached upon, both agriculture and the water resources are under serious threat. The rapid urbanisation and human negligence have only made it worse,” rues Karthic.  

The documentary, which was produced and post produced over a period of four months, also features interviews of seven people including environmental activist Arun Krishnamurthy.

The lakes in Serapanacherry, Sithalapakkam and Oragadam, are among the nine water bodies shown in the video. They stand testimony to the exploitation of natural resources particularly by private companies and the government. “Once a completely agricultural village, Oragadam is today an industrial hub. In the clip, one can see two sides of the lake. One that used to be inhabited by fish and frequented by migratory birds, the other filled with toxic waste in its present condition. The same is the case with many other lakes which Chennai is blessed with more than any other metropolitan city,” says Karthic. 

One of the biggest challenges Karthic and his team faced while the project was identifying the lakes. “Many lakes are not marked on Google Maps. It was by interacting with local people and hours of field work that the names of the lakes were verified. So, you can see the gross neglect here as well.” However, Karthic says there is light at the end of the tunnel. “It’s not that people are not concerned. They need an opportunity to come together. For instance, the Serapancherry lake, despite being flooded during the 2015 floods, was filled with garbage and encroachment. But, people from the local village came together, cleared it and restored it to a certain extent. So, it’s just about creating awareness and giving people encouragement to do their bit. I hope our documentary does that,” he concludes.