Dead under trash, Pallikaranai marshland to breathe again

CHENNAI: The Pallikaranai marsh, which was virturally buried under several layers of garbage as a result of indiscriminate dumping by residents as well as government agencies, is now being cleared as part of its eco restoration.
A senior forest department official said about 20 tonnes of construction waste, which had spread deep into the city’s last remaining wetland, had so far been removed as part of the project that began about a fortnight ago. “When areas such as Velachery and Madipakkam began to develop, scores of existing buildings were demolished and the debris dumped in the marsh,” he said.

Before readying to remove the nearly 35,000 cubic metres of garbage plastic waste, bottles and other non-bio degradable material from the marsh, officials conducted soil checks at seven places and found that in a few places the muck was nearly one and half meters deep. Care was taken not to disturb grass typha, a type of grass found all over the marsh and a habitat for water birds such as Purple moore hen (Porphyrio porphyrio), officials said. The department expects to cart away at least 7,500 truckloads of garbage by the time it is through.

A see-through barrier, raised in a small portion as a pilot project, will soon surround the entire marshland.

The marsh, which once sprawled over nearly 7,000 hectares, is now spread over 695 hectares as vast swathes were given away to set up educational institutions and software companies. The ongoing eco restoration is aimed at ensuring that the water body, whose survival is crucial for the city, is not touched anymore, officials said.