flowing into Bay of Bengal. Buckingham
All these hinder the normal flow of water,
canal is the other way to exit. Chocking of
causing
these exits of water with huge amount of
precipitation devastating all that come on the
garbage and a poor drainage system hinder
way. Unpredicted rains occur quite regularly
the natural flow of water. The case of
in Chennai - roughly once in every 10 years
Pallikaranai marshland, which drains water
- 1969, 1976, 1983, 1996, 2005, 2015 etc.
from a 250 sq.km. catchment area, is now
The Nungambakkam rain gauge recorded
telling. It was a 50 sq.km water sprawl in
270 mm. on October, 2005; 280 mm. in
southern suburbs of Chennai, which was
1969, 450 mm. in 1976 etc. As such, all
originally 4.5 sq.km, now has been reduced
sorts of preventive measures to handle the
to less than one tenth of its original.
natural hazards are to be taken beforehand
a
massive
flow
of
heavy
and for that proper planning is needed.
II.
Illegal construction
Some illegal construction have been built
2.
Festive: A curse on Godavari (Times
of India, Dec. 2015)
along the flow path like
i)
Brand new airport has been built on
materials after Navaratana, Diwali and
the floodplains of river Adyar,
ii) A bus terminal in flood plain area of
iii) A mass Rapid Transit System has
been constructed almost wholly over
iv) The Pallikaranai marshland, an IT
corridor and knowledge corridor
consisting of engineering college
v) And automobile and telecom SEZs
built
on
important drainage courses and
catchments etc.
Recently, Godavari was cleaned for the
also released from upstream dams to ensure
that river was washed to take the holy bath.
But with scanty rainfall, no water was
released to maintain the water flow. Besides
constructed on waterbodies
area
of the Godavari and adjacent waterbodies.
Kumbh Mela in Nashik, when water was
the Buckingham canal
residential
Chhat Puja festivals in October –November
2015, have been dumped into the river bed