Urban Environment

Many key players in the space of Information Technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT & ITES) in Chennai are located in OMR, Perungudi, Thoraipakkam, Navalur and Siruseri. Over the past few decades, the number of offices in the area has grown exponentially. With many jobs available, large apartment complexes began to be built to cater to the needs of the people. The population along the IT corridor now runs into lakhs. Unfortunately for the residents, the area is also home to the Perungudi dump yard, one of the city’s two dump yards. Much of the solid waste from all…

For years, the environment and earth have slowly been decaying, slipping away from our grasp little by little. A few noticed, and many didn't.  The global surface temperature has been measured since 1880 at a network of ground-based and ocean-based sites. Over the last century, the Earth's average surface temperature has risen by about 1⁰C. The eleven warmest years this century have all occurred since 1980, with 2016 being the warmest on record. Coastal regions are getting warmer in summers and colder in winters as the years pass. The average temperature margin between summers and winters is increasing everywhere. Hundreds…

For nearly eight to nine months in a year, the mangrove swamps by Thane creek become a sojourn for the seasonal exodus of flamingoes that migrate from Kutch. It is said that Rann of Kutch is the breeding ground and Mumbai, the feeding ground of these majestic birds. Mumbai Metropolitan Region has two IBAs (Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas) in Sewri Mudflat and Thane Creek. According to Deepak Apte, former Director at Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), these areas sustain about 70,000 waders and 1,20,000 flamingoes during peak ‘wintering’ months. These hotspots are well-known, but there are lesser known ‘sanctuaries’…

"The wait for an MTC bus on hot days is pushing me to use autos," says M Priyanka. "I take the 12G bus to go to my office in Mylapore from KK Nagar. There is no bus shelter in Munusamy Salai in KK Nagar from where I board the bus. The trees around the stop, which provided some respite, were chopped and not replanted. The wait for buses is also unpredictable. So now I use autos."  Priyanka used to pay nothing to travel on the MTC bus, thanks to bus transport being made free for women by the state government.…

"Why should we buy water from outside, if we are paying water tax to Metro Water for water supply?" asks S Bharathi, a resident of Besant Nagar. She gets water from the Nemmeli desalination plant but the water supplied is not potable. Residents have flagged various issues with the water being supplied from the plant for many years but with little recourse. The Nemmeli desalination plant has been operational since 2013 and supplies water to the southern parts of the city. The areas it covers include Sholinganallur, Neelangarai, Injambakkam, Karappakkam, Semmenchery, Thoraipakkam, Perungudi, Kottivakkam, Palavakkam, Thiruvanmiyur, Velachery, Taramani, Pallipattu, Adyar,…

"The Greater Chennai Corporation officials promised not to cut any trees in Gandhi Nagar when the work on stormwater drains commenced last year. They also assured us that they will transplant trees if needed. But soon after, they felled a neem tree and many saplings that were planted by the residents," says Meera Ravikumar, a resident of Gandhi Nagar. This is one of many instances of tree felling for infrastructure and development projects across Chennai.  Areas like K K Nagar, Shenoy Nagar, T Nagar, Adyar and Anna Nagar have seen tree felling for stormwater drain projects, laying of roads and…

Take a drive along Keelkattalai to Kamatchi Memorial Hospital any time during the day, and you will see hundreds of water lorries parked on the radial road. This stretch, 80% of which falls under Kovilambakkam Panchayat and 20% within the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) limits, is a hub of illegal groundwater extraction — one of the root causes of Chennai’s water woes.As it happens, there are four or five legitimate water drawing points near the Keelkattalai lake, but the lorries do not use those points to extract water. “A black hose has been laid illegally,  2 to 3 km away…

On a balmy evening in Chennai, Shruti was in for a rude shock as she entered her room in her fifth-floor apartment in Nesappakkam. A pigeon had made its way into the room through an open window. Over the next few hours, Shruti managed to get the bird to exit her room with much difficulty.  This incident resulted in her opting to protect her balcony and windows with a net to prevent pigeons from entering her home again. Feral pigeons have made their homes in Chennai, in the crevices, ledges, parapets and every other space they can find in buildings.…

Over the past few decades, North Chennai has seen pollution taint its air, land and water. Studies by various organisations have shown that a key factor behind the rising pollution in North Chennai is the major industries that operate in the Ennore-Manali region, including the state-owned thermal power plant. Pollution has affected the lives of scores of residents in North Chennai and robbed many of their livelihoods. While the polluters should be held responsible, it is equally important to hold the regulator, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), accountable. The TNPCB has been entrusted with the duty to curb…

It has been seven years since the Central Pollution Control Board came up with the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016. But many conservancy workers like Ramesh* and Sivaraman* come across bio-medical waste in Chennai while handling municipal waste often. "There have been over 25 instances of illegal dumping of bio-medical waste in Chennai and its suburbs the last four years alone," says V Pugalvendhan, a social activist who has been tracking and reporting bio-medical waste disposal violations since 2019. Even in January 2023, there was an instance of bio-medical waste dumping in Adyar bund near Kolapakkam, which is a suburb…