Joint Committee report on Moovarasampattu temple pond becoming a rain water harvesting reservoir, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 06/04/2022
Inspection report of the Joint Committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone) in respect of Original Application No. 123 of 2020 (Suomotu on the basis of the newspaper report published in Dinamalar Chennai city supplement edition, July 9, 2020 under the caption 'Moovarasampattu temple pond has become rain water harvesting reservoir.'
The NGT, November 26, 2021 had directed the district collector, Chengalpattu to take action to explore the possibility of tracing out the inlet and outlets and restore the inlet of Moovarasampattu lake and the outlet channel leading to the Adambakkam lake and submit an action taken report in this regard. During the time of inspection, some of the points noticed were that Gangai Yamman temple pond spreads over an extent of 2.445 acres and rain water and the surface run off from the surrounding areas is the main source for this pond.
The pond is mainly used as a rain water harvesting structure. Inlet cement pipes numbering two for the inflow of rain water and surface run off from the surrounding pipes have been provided. One outlet pipe in the eastern side of the tank for the outflow of excess water from the pond which flows through the streets has also been provided as there is no outlet channel.
The report informed the court that there is no dumping of solid waste in the pond as the pond is provided with compound wall on all four sides. Due to urbanisation, the downstream agriculture lands have been converted into buildings and thus there is no proper channel connecting to downstream water body - Madipakkam lake. Thus, it was proposed by the Block Development Officer, St. Thomas Mount panchayat union to provide closed pipeline connecting the outlet of the pond to the nearby existing channel to a length of about 30 metres by crossing the highways road. Furthermore, the existing channel of 650 m length would be desilted to an estimate of Rs. 1.5 lakhs for easy flow of water from the pond to the downstream waterbody, Madipakkam lake.