Ayyan Kulam located along Erikarai Street in Oragadam was restored last year by the Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI) having collaborated with Greater Chennai Corporation and Confederation of Real Estate Developers
Association of India (CREDAI).
It took 25 days for the team involved in the restoration process to complete the work and after completion, they had announced that they would be back to plant saplings and work with the local community to revive the pond back.
Speaking to News Today, Chiranjeevi, who is in charge of corporate social responsibility at EFI, said, “We restored the pond around October. Not to leave it as it is, we pledged to bring it back to its best state. Thus, we organised for a community event Saturday (16 February) celebrating the work put into the pond. The event saw people from the locality take part. We brought awareness among people about the importance of maintaining such waterbodies.”
Chiranjeevi added that the organisers arranged for wall painting at the event. “There is a Metrowater compound nearby and they gave us permission to put the wall to good use. So, we arranged for wall painting at the communtiy
event.” The organisers had ensured that the lake had a stepped bund layout for better water retention.
Balamurugan, who is with CitiConnect, another entity that is linked with the event, said around 150 local residents too turned up as expected. “The event happened between 10 am and 1 pm. There was also a small cleanup drive at the pond and we organised sapling plantation drive to further ensure the pond stays healthy.”
With event being a grand success, the team is looking to do the same at Kullappan Kulam nearby come 23 February and are awaiting response from the GCC to restore three more waterbodies in the neighbourhood.
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