Articles by T D Babu

As one travels along the sandy stretch from Neelangarai to Uthandi parallel to the East Coast Road in the Chennai suburbs, beaches and fishing villages seem more expansive compared to their urban counterparts. They are less crowded, and as you proceed further down the stretch, the prevalence of commercial activities diminishes. Sand dunes, or large curved mounds formed by loose sand, appear. As you move away from the city, they get so big that you might not be able to see the adjoining villages that exist right behind them. Dunes existed in the city centre, till as far back as…

On February 5 this year, an important public hearing was held at Perungudi’s Ward 184 office on Panchayat Office Road to discuss the fate of a large chunk of the Pallikaranai Marshland. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) organised the hearing to assess public opinion towards an eco-park set to come up on the Perungudi dump yard located in the marshland area. News reports about the eco-park first started to appear in 2023, as the next step after a process of biomining, which was a means to clear up the legacy waste dumped for three to four decades in the marsh…

Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar is one of the most abused natural spaces within the city.  The beach was in pristine condition until the early 1980s, with sparkling sand with two prominent structures, the Karl Schmidt Memorial and the governor’s Guest house with terracotta tiled roof. It was a scenic beach with scattered Ipomea patches.   Uca crabs could be seen busy de-silting their burrows at the same time being vigilant about their safety from their predators and humans.  There would be three rolls of ropes, used for dragging the net, stacked neatly in a circular pattern by the well-disciplined fishers.…

A little known fact about Chennai that came to light through a 9th Century relic found in Ambur was that present day Adyar and adjoining Adyar estuary areas were once known as Amaiyur (amai meaning turtle in Tamil). In fact, the Besant Nagar beach is especially known as a nestling area* for the Panguni Aamai i.e the Olive Ridley turtle.  Currently the turtle species is deemed endangered. Chennaiites hardly get to see these turtles on the beach as they used to in the past. Human activity such as urbanisation and commercialisation of the beach has reduced the sandy regions near the…

A few residents across the city have started planning to axe venerable Illupai trees also known as the Indian Butter Tree (Madhuca longifolia) in their neighbourhood. One such tree stands majestically at 2nd Cross Street, Karpagam Gardens. It was declared as a heritage tree in 2015 due to its age and rarity in the city, by the Greater Chennai Corporation, facilitated by K.S. Kandasamy, then Deputy Commissioner Works, and Nizhal, a Trust for tree conservation. This gruesome thought seems to have been triggered by a WhatsApp message by a news channel with the misleading headline ‘In a First, Coronaviruses found…