Foresters put up fence to save critical Pallikaranai marsh

Summary: CHENNAI: The Pallikaranai marsh , indiscriminately encroached upon, is slowly getting much-needed protection.Forest officials plan to erect a see-through fence and have built a 1,600-metre bund along the western part on Velachery Main Road. They also deepened and desilted 1,800 sq m on the stretch.The two projects, begun in August 2016, were halted for a couple of months, a senior forest official said. Work resumed in December and was completed in May. Work on paving the bund with tiles to benefit walkers will be completed in the next couple of months.Foresters also cleared several Prosopis juliflora trees, an invasive species spread over a sizeable area.The fence, another official said, would help check dumping of garbage and enable bird watchers view the marsh from the road. The government has sanctioned funds for the project, he said.In the 694.88-hectare marsh, the city corporation dumps garbage over 65 hectares, while 110 hectares, covered by water, are yet to handed over to the forest department.Around 13 hectares at Ambedkar Nagar in Pallikaranai, Mahalakshmi Nagar in Mettukkuppam, Kamatchi Nagar and Quaid-E-Milleth Nagar behind the NIOT campus and Kallukkuttai area in K P Kandhan Nagar are encroached upon.To remove the nearly 25 concrete houses and more than 800 asbestos-roofed temporary houses from the encroached area, the forest department has approached the Kancheepuram collector who has formed a committee for the purpose, the official said.

CHENNAI: The Pallikaranai marsh , indiscriminately encroached upon, is slowly getting much-needed protection.Forest officials plan to erect a see-through fence and have built a 1,600-metre bund along the western part on Velachery Main Road. They also deepened and desilted 1,800 sq m on the stretch.The two projects, begun in August 2016, were halted for a couple of months, a senior forest official said. Work resumed in December and was completed in May.

Work on paving the bund with tiles to benefit walkers will be completed in the next couple of months.Foresters also cleared several Prosopis juliflora trees, an invasive species spread over a sizeable area.The fence, another official said, would help check dumping of garbage and enable bird watchers view the marsh from the road. The government has sanctioned funds for the project, he said.In the 694.88-hectare marsh, the city corporation dumps garbage over 65 hectares, while 110 hectares, covered by water, are yet to handed over to the forest department.Around 13 hectares at Ambedkar Nagar in Pallikaranai, Mahalakshmi Nagar in Mettukkuppam, Kamatchi Nagar and Quaid-E-Milleth Nagar behind the NIOT campus and Kallukkuttai area in K P Kandhan Nagar are encroached upon.To remove the nearly 25 concrete houses and more than 800 asbestos-roofed temporary houses from the encroached area, the forest department has approached the Kancheepuram collector who has formed a committee for the purpose, the official said.. .

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/foresters-put-up-fence-to-save-critical-pallikaranai-marsh/articleshow/59188722.cms