Forest dept seeks Pallikaranai land

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Bird watchers and environmentalists have urged the Chennai corporation to hand over a few patches of Pallikaranai dumpyard and an approach pathway to the forest department so that the chief minister’s prestigious ‘Save Pallikaranai’ plan gets a fresh impetus.

With the corporation abandoning garbage dumping in Pallikaranai dumpyard after the recent fire accident, the peripheral areas can be annexed to Pallikaranai marshland as it would enhance the marsh cover benefiting migratory birds and also retrieve the lost biodiversity.

According to Mr K.V.R.K Thirunaranan, founder, The Nature Trust, Pallikaranai, has recorded 57 species of migratory and wetland birds during this dry summer season and several birds like pheasant tail jacana breeds in the marsh and purple heron is a local resident bird which need intense conservation efforts.

Further, the marsh if retrieved can be aquifer for the entire South Chennai and can prevent flooding.
The corporation some time back handed over around 400 acres of land in Pallikarnai and has passed a resolution favouring handing over of an additional 300 acres of Pallikarnai marshland on the northern portion of Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam radial road to the forest department and the process is on, Chennai corporation sources said.

“We are working on it and after obtaining the council’s nod, the remaining land will be handed over to the forest department,” a senior corporation official said.

The southern portion of the Pallikarnai marshland has been notified as a reserve land under the Tamil Nadu Forest Act, 1882, and has recorded close to 130 bird species.