Korattur lake restoration has cleared four acres of the lake’s western water spread in Chennai, where invasive Prosopis juliflora had choked the area and encroachments had reduced its usable water space. The restored stretch will be developed as a green lung with a pond and about 1,000 native saplings, according to officials and community representatives cited by the Times of India.
The work was enabled through corporate social responsibility funding from Lucas TVS. The cleared land lies near the western edge of Korattur lake, one of the city’s important water bodies. A pond will be formed on four grounds of land near the restored stretch, while the lake edge will be planted with native species.
R Sekharan, founder of the Korattur Aeri Padhukappu Makkal Iyakkam, said nearly 1,000 saplings representing about a dozen native species would be planted. The list includes Indian jujube, bur flower, bamboo, Indian butter tree, Indian blackberry, fig, Madras thorn, golden shower and peepal.
Namita Venkataraman, who heads human resources at Lucas TVS, said the company would maintain the newly planted saplings for five years. That maintenance commitment is significant for the project’s survival because the restoration effort will depend not only on planting but also on keeping the native vegetation alive after the initial work is completed.
The cleared area had previously faced pressure from encroachments and invasive vegetation. Several semi-permanent structures had come up in the water spread despite earlier eviction drives, according to the report. The recurrence points to the continuing difficulty of protecting urban water bodies after an encroachment is removed.
Sekharan said advertisement banners had been placed in the area claiming that plots were available and displaying patta numbers that had been falsely created. The allegation illustrates how the conversion of protected or environmentally sensitive land into apparent real estate can occur through misleading claims of ownership and development rights.
A senior official of the water resources department said encroachers are sometimes provided with electricity connections, encouraging them to begin construction. The statement highlights a coordination problem in urban land administration: enforcement against encroachment can be undermined when basic utility access is extended to structures whose legal status has not been resolved.
The restoration therefore involves more than landscaping. The four-acre clearance creates space for a pond and native planting, but protecting that space will require continued monitoring by the water resources authorities and local stakeholders. The five-year maintenance commitment provides an operating period for the saplings, while the reported history of repeated encroachment makes enforcement an equally important part of the project’s next phase.
