Residents living around the sprawling Red Hills lake (Puzhal ‘eri’) — one of the most important sources for the city’s drinking water supply — are fuming in anger as the State government has proposed to re-classify nearly 120 acres of land in its catchment area.
Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority issued the notification recently, announcing it had received applications for re-classifying 119 acres of land in Morai and Vellanur villages in Villivakkam Panchayat Union in Tiruvallur district. The notification categorises the land as ‘neer pidippu paguthi’ — water catchment area as per land use mentioned in CMDA’s Second Master Plan and the application was for re-classifying them for institutional purposes, made by private trusts and groups of individuals.
State agencies said the re-classification move will not affect the reservoir in any manner and that ‘no objection’ certificates to individuals and private institutions had been given in the past for development in catchment areas, but residents are not convinced, stating the move went against court judgments. “No part of the catchment area of any lake, let alone Red Hills, should be handed over to individuals or the private sector. Water from the lake quenches the thirst of millions of Chennai residents and re-charges the ground water table for many villages and towns around it,” N.S.Manoharan of Puzhal, told The Hindu.
Citing various orders of the Madras High Court, including one by Justice Markandeya Katju in 2005, activists said the government agencies were duty bound to protect not just lakes and tanks, but also water channels draining monsoon water into them. Sources in Water Resources Department said even after re-classification, water flow will not be affected from catchment areas into Red Hills lake. Vellanur and Morai are located nearly 12 km away from Red Hills lake.
A similar re-classification was done at Oragadam and Pudur at Ambattur. However, the areas get flooded during every monsoon, residents said.
