Hope and Colours at Puttenahalli Lake

In this season of colours, our lake bed may seem drab, devoid of water but for us at PNLIT, it is a sign of hope. The brown piles of drying Salvinia is the final leg of a battle we’ve been fighting since Aug. last year to remove the invasive fern Salvinia Molesta and to infuse new life into the lake. The way the BBMP’s JCB and the men are working, we are hopeful that the last of the Salvinia will be removed by the end of the week. THEN we can welcome the rain to fill up the lake.

In spite of our preoccupation with the lake bed, we did not miss the riot of colours on the embankment. Some of the trees we’d planted in July 2010 have begun flowering and how lovely they look! A selection of photos of trees that began flowering this year are attached. A few like the tall Markhamia Lutea have been showering yellow flowers on the walking track for a year or more. The Bougainvillea has been a blaze of scorching pink and violet while preventing miscreants from cutting through the fence.

We are now setting up a small garden within an enclosure behind the Gazebo. Very soon there’ll be a burst of colours here as well since most of these are flowering plants such as Hibiscus, Canna (both in two colours), Nerium, Euphorbia and others.

This is our floral thank you to our donors! We are using your donations not only for the trees or to set up the garden but also to effect many other changes at our lake. Please keep donating to PNLIT and avail of IT exemption under 80G.

 
Golden Laburnum


Crepe Flower


African Tulip

 
Tabebuia Argentia


Crepe Flower, Bougainvillea in the background


Garden enclosure


Garden plants

Pics: Usha Rajagopalan

⊕

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

Pallikaranai Marsh’s Zone of Influence: Threat or shield for South Chennai?

Pallikaranai Marsh acts as a buffer against Chennai floods. Protecting homes and ecology around it needs a proper ZoI, not weak rules.

Every monsoon, South Chennai goes underwater. The only sponge that soaks up all that rain is the Pallikaranai Marsh, yet around it, 8,619 hectares of land face severe flood risks. Despite this, the State has offered to protect only a fraction of that land.  On October 9th, the Tamil Nadu State Wetlands Authority (TNSWA) told the Madras High Court  that the marsh's interim Zone of Influence (ZoI) is just 36 survey numbers, covering 128.19 hectares. The next hearing of the case is on November 11th.  Scattered "protection"  These plots lie in bits and pieces across seven villages, from Pallikaranai to Perumbakkam.…

Similar Story

Blocked Kovalam-Nemmeli wetland channels risk disaster for South Chennai; Conservationists urge action  

Barriers built for the Mamallan Reservoir block Buckingham Canal water flow, vital to keep the wetland alive, avoid floods and sustain fishing families.

In Chengalpattu district, the main water channels of the Kovalam-Nemmeli coastal wetland, which drains a catchment of more than 270 square kilometres, have currently been blocked. Barriers that obstruct water flow have been built across Chennai's Buckingham Canal at three places: Thiruvidanthai-Vadanemmeli, near the Nemmeli-Thiruporur bridge, and Saluvankuppam. Earlier, we explored how the Mamallan Reservoir causes serious damage to the wetland’s ecology and how fishing livelihoods are affected. Field investigations by the Wetland Conservation Network have recorded the blockages preventing tidal exchange in the Buckingham Canal.           According to officials, these barriers were put up to enable construction of the Mamallan…