Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91

Vol. XXVII No. 3, May 16-31, 2017

Chennai Newsreel

–T.K. Srinivasa Chari

Welcome to a prince of parks, once a frog

the entrance to the Parkthe entrance to the Park

Two words recur during my visits to the Chetput Eco Park, mirage and oasis. Mirage because of my on-and-off disbelief at what I see around me, and that leads me to my second word, a humongous park that’s an oasis amidst urban sprawl. On the eastern side of the park are the buildings of the KMC Hospital. But the distant view of vehicular traffic down the Chetput overbridge on the west romanticises my perspective rather than the usual cursing of it.

Strolling around in the spaciousness of the park, I can clearly see the transformation that has been wrought. Largely disused water bodies – some of them were aquaculture ponds – have become twin lakes neatly embanked on all sides, a green and blue revelation to those who’ve seen the before and after pictures. The Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corporation, custodians of the park, took 20 months and spent Rs. 42 crore to turn the proverbial frog into the prince.

Finding my way into the park from the ever-busy Poonamallee High Road on the north, I enter past an art installation of a couple holding aloft what could be a nylon net dripping water. The walls have large aquariums and water fountains. Soon after entering, I see an ‘in my face’ two-storied building. A relief, it’s a parking lot. Never mind that a park in a metro is where we go to connect with nature, breathe in the cleaner air, look heavenward at the skies or simply stand and stare!

The administrative office of the park and the ticket counter, (you pay Rs. 25 towards entry) share the same single-storied building in a green garden space. For the regulars, there are monthly, half-yearly and annual passes at Rs. 200, 500 and 1,000 respectively. There are information boards placed near the counter telling you about the Eagle Ray, Clown Fish, Killer Whales, Coral Reef and Lion Fish among others. Other boards trace the history of the park since the days it was a brick kiln in 1934, when the site was dug up to form a depression for water to fill.

The entrance lobby overlooks the major lake with a knoll in the centre. There’s a deck in the lobby which offers a ‘feast for the eye’, the expanse of the lake, supplemented by a freshening breeze. A walking track paved with cement stones runs the distance of 1.5 km round the twin lakes. The path around the embankments is grassy. The land spread of the park is 6.9 acre and water spread, 9.1 acre. A water treatment and recycling plant keeps the rainwater harvested lakes clean.

Newly planted trees and shrubs grow around the park, with open and covered seating in several places. A few of the seats are designed to look like polished stumps of trees.

There are two figure-of-eight-shaped acupressure walkways where people walk barefoot on pebbles embedded in the ground. After all the appreciation of Nature, the cafeteria alongside a children’s park brings me down to earth.

The smaller of the two lakes is reserved for angling. A short, curved bridge separates the two lakes. A team of ducks glides across the water, changing course together and now and again dipping their necks into the water. Sometimes they waddle on the walking track, going quack-quack.

One of the highlights of the park is the boating on the bigger lake. Life jackets are provided to those going for a round in the pedal boats. The deepest point of the lake is said to be 15-18 feet.

Well-wishers of the park will knit their brows over what the looming summer of 2017 holds for the park and the lakes with their shrinking edges. As for the present, the park which opens at 4.30 am and closes at 8 pm, is the delight of the walkers circumambulating the park, each at his or her own pace.

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