Chennai, Sept 1:
PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Sunday criticised successive Tamil Nadu governments for allegedly failing to protect the Pallikaranai marshland and demanded immediate measures to safeguard the ecologically sensitive wetland.
Leading an awareness rally in Chennai demanding notification of the Pallikaranai marsh, Anbumani questioned why the government had failed to protect the wetland despite its importance to the city.
He asked whether the government would have adopted the same approach if the marshland had been its own property. Pasumai Thayagam president Sowmiya Anbumani also participated in the rally.
Anbumani has repeatedly called for the marshland to be formally demarcated and notified, arguing that legal protection is essential to prevent further encroachments and preserve the wetland.
The Pallikaranai marsh is considered an important natural drainage system for Chennai and plays a key role in absorbing excess rainwater during heavy rainfall. Environmentalists have long warned that encroachments and urban development could weaken its flood-mitigation capacity.
Anbumani also criticised Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay over the Cauvery water dispute and questioned why an all-party meeting had not been convened. He said the State government should exert political pressure on the Centre over Karnataka’s proposed Mekedatu dam project instead of relying only on legal proceedings before the Supreme Court.
He suggested that the Chief Minister lead a delegation of Ministers to New Delhi and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press the State’s concerns over the proposed dam.
On the abandoned Parandur airport proposal, Anbumani opposed the government’s reported plan to use the acquired land for industrial purposes.
Instead, he proposed creating a large water body of around 5,000 acres by interconnecting existing water bodies on the acquired land.
According to him, such a project could strengthen Chennai’s water security and provide an additional source of water for the rapidly growing metropolitan region.
The PMK leader’s latest intervention has once again brought the protection of Pallikaranai marshland and Chennai’s larger wetland ecosystem into the political spotlight, particularly ahead of the northeast monsoon.These are written as independent newspaper copies, so they can be used separately for print/web without repeating the same background unnecessarily.