The city Corporation's ongoing pond renovation work at Charachira has not gone down well with environmentalist groups, who are of the opinion that works will only lead to the eventual destruction of the pond. But the Corporation authorities maintain that it is part of the civic body’s initiatives at protecting water bodies that are facing destruction.
The Corporation has taken up a ₹3.25 crore project as part of the People’s Plan programme to renovate the pond with a walkway, boating facilities, fish farming and swimming facilities. One of the major bones of contention is the walkway around the pond. The work on the walkway along three sides of the pond has been completed. Environmentalists say that the construction has reduced the area of the pond as well as cut off the water sources to it.
“The walkway has been constructed by encroaching into the pond for a few metres. Two water sources used to drain into the pond, from the Nanthencode side and from the Raj Bhavan side. Both these have now been cut off, because of which the pond has not filled up much even after so much rain. Also, a lot of construction waste and soil has been dumped to one side of the pond. The question now is whether the Corporation can reverse this or open the water sources into the pond to maintain the health of the water body and retain it as an ecological-friendly area by planting enough trees by the side. Water bodies can be protected as they are without any construction activities,” says Veena Maruthoor, an environmentalist.
Good intentions
But the city Corporation authorities point at the pond revival works that the civic body has taken up in different wards to say that it has only good intentions in taking up the work at Charachira.
“The pond had fallen into disuse over the years, and was filled with a carpet of water hyacinth. Parts of the pond on some side were encroached upon by people too, which has reduced its area considerably over the decades.
The only area which we have filled up is a water tank adjacent to the pond which was once used by dhobis and was no longer in use. This area was levelled off to be used for other purposes. The pond has been preserved as it is. We had expected to complete the work by this year, but due to the successive floods and COVID-19, there has been some delay. We are getting all the blame when we are trying to revive a pond which was no longer in use.
A pond is similarly being revived in Chanthavila now. We also have protected ponds in PTP Nagar, Muttada and other places,” says Palayam Rajan, Chairman of the Corporation's Town Planning Standing Committee.
