De-silting the Pulicat lake in Chennai - Whats happening exactly now?
Posted on: 11/Nov/2023 9:19:55 AM
The second largest brackish water body in India, Pulicat Lake is making news now!!
To ensure smooth tidal exchange and help the livelihoods of the fishermen in the surrounding places, WRD or Water Resources Dept has started to de-silt the famous Pulicat Lake estuary.
The temporary measures would help in removing sand deposits in the estuary and mitigate flooding in the nearby areas. This was as per some officers belonging to WRD.
On Thursday, 9th November 2023, collector of Thiruvallur dist Mr. T. Prabhushankar along with some officers carried out inspection here. In 2 spots of estuary, desilting works would be carried out here for a depth of 3.5m. Point is that the mouth would be kept open for a length of 60m and a width of 35m in one spot, silt would be removed for a length of 45m in another spot. By this, several villages would be benefited as they would be able to avoid flooding.
It is known that Pulicat Lake is fed by floodwater from Araniyar River and also surplus runoff from the catchment places. The National Board of Wildlife is yet to give its approval for constructing a training wall by the Fisheries dept at this lake for an amount of Rs 26 crores.
Nearly 7000 fishermen families depended on this lake and this was explained by Mr. Durai Mahendran, Tiruvallur Dist Traditional United Fisherman Association.
