The Water Resources Department has sought community participation to enhance green cover around Red Hills reservoir.
Brimming with water this season, the lake is one of the main sources of drinking water to the city. It now has a storage of 2,481 mcft against its capacity of 3,300 . The department has sought the support of voluntary organisations in developing a green cover around the lake and protect its biodiversity.
Work is in progress to clean garbage and plastic waste for a distance of 4 km near the main bund.
Officials of the WRD said various voluntary organisations have been roped in for different components of the initiative. Social Work Team Trust (Swott), a voluntary organisation based in Puzhal, would work as a nodal agency. Besides planting of saplings, there are plans to fence the lake area near Puzhal-Tiruvallur Road. More organisations could collaborate with the department in the greening efforts.
S.Sameer of Swott noted that a team of volunteers have already planted about 250 saplings in an area of two acres near Alamaram bus stop, along the reservoir. Once the site is cleared of garbage, there are plans to plant about 5,000 saplings to develop a green belt around the lake.
“We are planning to mobilise more volunteers for the project and residents could also contribute by planting saplings on special occasions. We plan to create a website with exclusive details on the lake,” he added.
The department has also sought the support of EMAI-Trust for Environment Monitoring and Action Initiating to create micro habitats in the lake. T.Murugavel, EMAI’s project coordinator said, “We found that the waterbody already has a good biodiversity during a preliminary survey. We spotted some of the resident breeding birds like cormorant, spotted munia and black drongo.”
The organisation plans to plant host and nectar yielding plants to create a habitat for butterflies as it would also increase birds visiting the lake. Native tree species like ilupai and punnai would also be planted a little away from the lake bund to nurture biodiversity, he added.