2014
A Bachelor thesis by Bram Popkema
Supervisor: Maarten Bavinck
14-8-2014
Urbanization of a Protected
Wetland
A Case Study of the Pallikaranai Marsh, India
Bram Popkema, Human Geography, University of Amsterdam Bachelor’s Thesis, submitted on 14-8-2014
Abstract
Urbanization of a Protected Wetland: A Case Study of the Pallikaranai Marsh, India
The aim of this study is to investigate how urbanization and the accompanying waste problem of South-Chennai affects the Pallikaranai Marshland in a physical manner, looking at changes of the marsh and its surroundings through a planological point of view, without going deep into the ecological perspective. The data for this study were collected through a six weeks preparation of literature study, and an empirical part which consisted of four weeks of extensive observations and interviews with important stakeholders. This methodology will be further explained in the first stage of the thesis, together with a theoretical framework and contextual information. The second part illustrates the conducted observations and recent changes of the marsh. Finally, the influence of the waste problem, future plans of the government and Indian politics will be elaborated. On the basis of this research, it can be concluded that the area of the marshland is reduced significantly in the last couple of decades, and it currently suffers from serious contamination by the dump yard. The allocation of a large part of the marshland to the Forest Department in 2007 has protected its size in recent years, and future plans of the government are looking good for the conservation and even the improvement of the marsh. It is, however, questionable when and if these measures will be taken, and in which matter corruption or other priorities are playing a role.
Preface and acknowledgements
Developing countries generally know a high rate of urbanization. This thesis highlights the situation of urbanization and the accompanying problems in the Indian city Chennai. This work will be done as a thesis assignment for me as bachelor student Future Planet Studies and Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam. The project would be about coastal governance or a topic which relates to it. During six weeks before departure to the field, the 17 students of us organized ourselves in 4 different groups who all had another topic. Our group consists of four people and we brought our focus to the Pallikaranai marsh, with each of us another approach. In the six weeks we took preparations for the fieldwork we would do in Chennai, and followed a lecture series about India in general. The first two of six weeks in India we got lectures about ecosystem governance and services in coastal areas. Then we started the four weeks of fieldwork at the Pallikaranai marsh and surroundings. Back in The Netherlands we transformed all this information to this thesis.
I would like give some acknowledgements to a couple of people. Firstly my two supervisors Maarten Bavinck, and in the beginning Jaap Rothuizen, for all the enthusiastic and energetic support and knowledge they had put in helping me with this project. Secondly I would like to thank the three students of my group: Rita Seijelmass, Peter van der Hem and Yorick Vink. Although we all had another research, the collaboration with these students helped me a lot with the research. Thirdly and most important I would like to thank Karthick Radhakrishnan, assistant of the Associate Professor Madras Institute of Development Studies. He helped us from the start as a guide to explore and explain the area. During the entire fieldwork he was a very helpful contact and information point who helped us getting in touch with people we would never get to by ourselves. In this thesis I will refer to him as my guide.
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT 2
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3
INTRODUCTION 6
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 6
RESEARCH METHOD 7
CONTEXT 9
GROWTH OF THE CITY 9
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE 9
GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES RELEVANT TO THE PALLIKARANAI MARSH 9
CURRENT SITUATION OF THE PALLIKARANAI MARSH 10
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PALLIKARANAI MARSH 10
LOCATION 10
DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA 10
BIODIVERSITY 11
DESCRIBING SURROUNDING AREAS 11
CURRENT OBSERVATION AND FINDINGS OF URBANIZATION IN THE AREA 12
NORTH OF THE 200FT ROAD 12
WEST OF PALLIKARANAI MARSH 13
EAST OF PALLIKARANAI MARSH 14
CHANGES OF THE AREA IN THE RECENT HISTORY (2000-2014) 15
FUTURE SITUATION OF THE PALLIKARANAI MARSH 17
WASTE DUMPING, POLLUTING AND THE PERUNGUDI DUMP YARD 17
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT 17
PERUNGUDI DUMP YARD 18
FUTURE PLANS OF THE GOVERNMENT 20
PROTECTION AGAINST ENCROACHMENT 20
PLANS OF THE GOVERNMENT 21
MOVEMENT OF THE DUMP YARD 22
ROLE OF INDIAN POLITICS 22
HIERARCHY 23
CONFIDENCE 23
COMMUNICATION 23 BACKROOM POLITICS 24 CONCLUSION 24 DISCUSSION 25 LITERATURE 26 APPENDIX 28 5
Introduction
The Pallikaranai Marsh is a wetland situated 20 kilometre south of the centre of Chennai, India. It is one of the last surviving natural wetlands of the south of India (The Hindu, 2011). This freshwater swamp has a high biodiversity of both plants as animals, and is therefore assigned as a protected area by the government of Chennai. This was necessary to retain the marshland because its size decimated in the last 50 years (Chennai City Connect & Care Earth, N.D.). This is mainly due to the growth of the city and the accompanying urbanization. This urbanization leads to problems for the marshland in terms of encroachment and pollution. The first problem is an ongoing situation of encroachment of the marsh since the growing city reached the edges of the marshland. The second problem mainly began to start with the arrival of a city dump yard 25 years ago. Over the years and even now the dump yard got bigger and bigger, and contamination of the marshland got worse and worse. These two problems will be researched in this paper trying to get an answer to the research question:
How does urbanization and the accompanying waste problem affect the Pallikaranai Marsh in a physical manner, looking at changes of the marsh and its surroundings through a planological point of view, without going deep into the ecological perspective?
To give further explanation of the terms used in the research question, this introduction will be followed by a theoretical framework. After that, there will follow the research method to explain how the research is designed. Here will be told which methods will be used, how information will be gathered and processed, and what problems the research could encounter. Next will be given some context
information that will be helpful to understand the case and its situation. The main findings will be discussed by some general information, historical changes, current observations, the Perungudi dumpsite and his problems, future plans concerning the marshland and a last part about Indian government style. The thesis will end with the conclusion and a discussion. Theoretical framework
To get a clearer view of what we mean by urbanization I would like to quote a simplified definition of Vlahov and Galea (2002): “Urbanization is the process that involves the emerge in growth (or decrease in size) of cities”. This development mostly goes together with the growth of population of the city due to migration towards the city. It is also possible that towns nearby get added to the city because they get swallowed by its borders. Urbanization has not always to do with population numbers. Constructing areas for a business park, infrastructure or governmental buildings also count as urbanization.
A result of this urbanization is often the creation of segregation and the accompanying formation of the so called slums and gated communities. Blandy and Lister (2006) define a gated community as followed: “Gated Communities have an explicit boundary, access by non-residents is restricted, the development is usually managed by the residents, and there are legal constraints on residents' behaviour and use of their properties”. The most important reason for the existence of these gated communities is the feeling of these people that they need a safe and secured environment for them and their surroundings. A slum can be defined as “a heavily populated urban area characterised by substandard housing and squalor” (UN-habitat, 2007). It is a quite simple and physical
description of the housing form, but it mostly refers to lower quality or informal housing. There are various other names that could also describe these areas, just as one slum can differ a lot from another slum. In some slums the houses are built as simple as possible, and sometimes they are made of a good foundation and seem to be in good shape, but what most of them have in common are a lack in electricity, water and sanitation.
When writing about how urbanization affects the wetland, we mean in what matter does the urbanization lead to a decrease of the marshland in qualitative and quantitative manner. The quantitative aspect focusses on the size of the wetland, and whether this decreases, stays protected, or even grows. The qualitative aspect is one which focusses on the environmental issues of the marshland, such as biodiversity. When writing about the effects urbanization and the waste problem has on the wetland and the importance of the conservation of it, one should know the true meaning of a wetland and its ecological, economical en sociological value. According to the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources, wetlands are “areas of marsh, fen, peat land or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres” (Wetlands International, 2014). These wetlands are a valuable ecosystem because it prevents us from floods and coastal erosion, contains a lot of biodiversity, and also brings great socio-economic benefit with its constant water supply, fisheries, fuel wood and recreation possibilities (The Environmental Education Centre of India, 2014). In the Pallikaranai
wetland, however, there is a waste problem, which is mainly caused by the Perungudi dumpsite. This dumpsite of 200 hectares big contains toxic waste which flows into the marshland and damages and decreases its biodiversity (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, 2008).
Research method
This research was done by a case study of the area Pallikaranai. The information was gathered by several different methods. Before the fieldwork there has been done a lot of reading about the area and the situation. Literature has been read about physical change of the area, about the Pallikaranai Marsh as an ecosystem, about the Perungudi dump yard, about the government structure and about rules and plans of the government concerning the whole situation. In this way I was informed enough about the situation and environment I would enter.
To get a clear view how the area looks like I have done extensive observations in and around the Pallikaranai Marsh. By driving and walking through the area I saw the recent developments in the wetland. During this observation I looked who are present in the area, and what kind of building sites are present. By making a map of this I got an organized map about how the current situation of the area looks like. I brought a GPS with me which noted down the exact locations I went to. The first part of mapping the area was done by driving and walking as close to the marsh as possible to see what the exact borders of the marsh were. This measurement is done by setting the GPS in making a marking point every 10 meters. This ensured I got a very accurate result. The second part of mapping has been done by making waypoints of important landmarks. These accounted for anything notable for the research. It included cases like construction sites, recent
development, undeveloped surfaces or differences in wealth between the neighbourhoods. Another use of taking waypoints was to see where the residential parts are, where commercial or business areas are, where institutional areas are and where other purposes of land use are present. All these results have been stored in the GPS and were elaborated with the program GIS when I got back in The Netherlands. The map that came out was compared with ones of the year 2008 (Chennai City Connect & Care Earth, N.D.). In this way, one could see recent changes of urbanization of the Pallikaranai Marsh.
When the observations were done I took interviews with the local inhabitants, nature protectors, and representatives of the government about their plans. In this way I researched the situation from different angles of view. I interviewed them about the topics urbanization, ecology and the Perungudi dump yard. By comparing the different perspectives and visions they have, I clarified whether these plans conflict with each other or not. This also gave a better insight of the situation the marshland is in.
After this is done I also did a policy study to look at what kind of plans the Chennai government had concerning the Pallikaranai area according to the books. This made the situation more clear and brought different practical thoughts of the governors to the light. A last thing I did is literature study about the Perungudi dump yard and its effect on the Pallikaranai Marsh.
During this research I had to take into account that I would be in a total different culture than in The Netherlands. This lead to some cultural clashes. To prevent these I joined a lecture series at the University of Amsterdam to gain knowledge about the Indian society. However
this helped me understanding their way of living, there were still situations which were difficult for me or the other to deal with. I had to adapt myself to the situation and understand that I will not be seen as one of them. This gave me a different position as researcher. Although I had the possibility to use a translator, the language seemed to be a barrier during the interviews. Most of them could speak adequate English, but their usage of it was quite different than how we speak it in The Netherlands. This sometimes resulted in vague and not understandable answers, which were difficult for me to interpret. The second problem was making appointments with these people. When seeing them they are very direct and helpful, but when you try to make an appointment there usually came no reaction at all, or you were redirected to someone else. This slowed down the research considerably, and because of this I did not had the chance to talk to all the people I wanted to. A third problem was the hierarchical structure of the government. It was not possible for me to talk to anyone after I spoke to the mayor. They seem to be afraid of telling different stories to me than the mayor’s. This led to a gap in information I needed for my research. The last problem was to really get to the exact borders of the marshland. Some areas where not able to reach because of walls or other physical restrictions. Some rules had to be broken to get access to some areas, so this made the measuring of the area sometimes very hard.
After collecting the fieldwork information in these four weeks I brought it all together in The Netherlands. In de weeks that followed all the information is analysed, and written down in this thesis.
Context
When looking at the Pallikaranai marsh, it does not look like it lies in an urban area, but due to the enormous growth of Chennai in the last decades it is now fully surrounded by urban development. Therefore, one could say it practically lies in the city at this very moment.
Growth of the city
The growth of Chennai is the main reason of the urbanization of the Pallikaranai marsh. The city expands it borders more and more, which resulted in the inclusion of Pallikaranai in the municipal authority. In figure 1 you can see the growth of the city for the last 40 years. One could see the marshland is now completely surrounded by urban development.
The metropolitan area of Chennai has grown from 3.5 million inhabitants in 1971 to 8.8 million inhabitants in 2011 (CMDA Chennai, 2008). The projection of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CDMA) is that this population will keep rising to 12.5 million in the year 2026. The last three decades this is mainly due to the migration of around 1 million Indians per decade to the city. The average density of the city will rise from 27 persons per acre in 2001 to 67 persons per acre in 2026.
Government structure
The city has one overlapping governing body: Chennai Corporation. This is the overarching institute for making policy with Saidai Duraisamy from the party AIADMK as its mayor. The local government furthers exists of three more sub-bodies which fall under the Corporation: Municipalities, Town Panchayats and Village Panchayats. Besides this local government are the parasternal agencies. The CDMA is the most notable for this research,
because it covers metropolitan planning and the coordination of project implementation. This means they are the ones who make policy concerning land use and urbanization.
Government authorities relevant to the Pallikaranai Marsh
The Pallikaranai marsh is not governed by a single governing body altogether. Since April 2007 a large part of the marshland is brought under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department (The Hindu, 2007). This is a government body with the purpose of protecting wilderness, the ecological diversity and species richness (Tamil Nadu Forest Department, 2007). The practical meaning of this shift is that the protected part of the marshland now is under their supervision, and it will be impossible for anyone to build in the marsh without their approval. The area above 200ft Road belongs to the Chennai Corporation, and around the ECR Link Road it mostly belongs to private actors. It is because
Figure 1: Map of the growth of Chennai (CDMA Chennai, 2008).
of their commercial interests likely to assume that these private areas will get urbanized. Current situation of the Pallikaranai Marsh
General information about the Pallikaranai marsh
Location
The Pallikaranai wetland is a marshland located 20 kilometres from the south of Chennai, a south-east Indian city in the state Tamil Nadu. It lies between the railway station Velachery and a big crossroad named 200ft Road in the north, the residential neighbourhood Pallikaranai in the west, the ECR Link Road and a technology centre in the south, and a mix of IT-companies and residents in the east. It is 3 kilometres offshore and is currently around 80 square kilometres big. It is connected with the Buckingham Canal in the east through a water stream which flows out of the marshland on the south-east. This Buckingham canal runs through whole Chennai parallel to The Bay of Bengal. In this way the Pallikaranai marsh is connected with the ocean. The official edges of the area are determined and protected by the forest department. These edges are shown at figure 2, marked with the orange line. However, in this paper I will often talk about the Pallikaranai Marsh as a bigger area. This is mainly because there might be an official border of the area, but there are hardly any
physical borders between the official and non-official parts of the area. The part south of the ECR Link Road for instance is not a part of the official Pallikaranai marsh, but it looks practically the same. This also counts partly for the area north of the 200ft Road. I will discuss this topic later, but before this road came, the north and south were unseparated from each other. Besides that, the Perungudi dump yard is also located in this northern part, and has substantial influence on the
southern part of the marsh. A last reason why I will deal with a bigger scope of the area is because the borders of the area also varies per agency who are involved in the area. This will be further explained later.
Figure 2, Map of Pallikaranai Marsh (Google Maps, 2014).
Description of the area
Looking at the map it appears that the Pallikaranai wetland is completely enclosed by urban structures. On one hand this is true, the area is entirely surrounded by buildings or roads, but on the other hand this area is also
connected to other green areas. It is connected to the Buckingham Canal in the southeast, which, in turn is connected to the Bay of Bengal, and in the north and west it is connected to several water tanks through relatively small water streams. These tanks provide the wetland of fresh water from the surroundings. Combined with rainwater in the wetland they are providing the area of a sufficient water level. During rainfall season the water level in the areas is much higher than in dry periods. This frequently leads to flooding of surrounded urban areas (University of Freiburg, N.D.). All these tanks and the marsh itself constitute a flood plain in rainy seasons. This will ensure a better catchment of rainwater in the rainy season, which leads to a lower risk of floods in the surrounding urban area. Therefore, these tanks and the marsh are of great importance for southern Chennai.
Biodiversity
Another great value of the area is the richness and diversity of plant and animal species which are available in this marsh. The NGO Care Earth, that works towards ecological conservation of the Pallikaranai marsh and other ecological sites in Chennai, identified 337 different animal species present in the marsh (Vencatesan, 2007). The majority of species are birds (115), plants (114) and fishes (46), but it is also the habitat of butterflies, reptiles, crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians and mammals. Among these species are a few rare ones, such as the grey-headed lapwing, a lot of exotic floating vegetation, such as water hyacinth, and characteristic species such as the Russell’s viper and the water buffalo. Although the area is protected by the Forest Department, all of these species are threatened by heavy pollution caused by the Perungudi dumpsite and ongoing urban development in the area.
Describing surrounding areas
This urban development consists roughly of three separate neighbourhoods, a train station, and the ECR Link Road in the south. The west side of the Pallikaranai marsh is a residential neighbourhood which is also named Pallikaranai. This district is deeply penetrated in the marshland and is located almost entirely on the original marshland. According to a global consultancy report, housing prices in this area will rise with 93% between 2012 and 2017, and it is India’s 11th
largest investment destinations in residential real estate (The Economic Times, 2012). Although this area seems booming looking at these figures, according to my guide almost 70 percent of the houses on the east side of the district have no residents actually living in their houses due to heavy contamination and pollution (personal communication, 10-April-2014). On the south side the Pallikaranai marshland is bordered by the ECR Link Road and the IT-Park Elcot-Sez, a special economic zone of the government. South of this road is an area which looks quite the same as the official Pallikaranai marsh. It used to be together, but because of this road it got split up. At the east of the marsh lies the so called “IT expressway” Thoraipakkam, a strongly residential and commercial hub for the suburbs in the south of Chennai. Because of the Old Mahabalipuram Road this neighbourhood is very well connected to the city centre and the airport, which makes it an interesting location for IT-companies. This area also had pollution problems due to the dump yard, but these strongly decreased since the burning of waste was banned (Toxic Watch Alliance, 2008). In the north-east side of the marsh lies the neighbourhood Perungudi, which has the same name as the dumpsite lying in the marsh. Just like Thoraipakkam, Perungudi lies in the IT-corridor and therefore also has a strategic location for residential and commercial
settlements. Despite big IT companies Perungudi has poor infrastructure and lacks a proper waste drainage system. In the north-west side of the marshland lies the Velachery railway station and more to the west the Velachery main road.
The area north of the 200ft Road is formally not assigned as a protected wetland, but as a wasteland. In this area we find the Perungudi dump yard. All the waste from southern Chennai is collected here, and is left here mostly without treatment. The dump yard is in operation for 25 years, is now 200 acres big and the government plans to shut it down in 2015 (Chennai Corporation, 2014). According to the government the amount of processed garbage is 2200-2400MT per day. More about the dump yard and waste disposal system of Chennai will follow in further chapters.
Current observation and findings of urbanization in the area
To get a clearer view of urbanization of the Pallikaranai marsh and the surrounding area, there should be, next to literature study, also be done extensive fieldwork in the area itself. This is done by observation in the complete area within the circular ring road surrounding the marsh. This means the entire area within the OMR Road, MGR Main Road, Velachery Main Road and the ECR Main road. I divided this area into three parts, based on their physical location, which will be elaborated one after the other. The first area contains the part above the 200ft Road with the dump yard and railway station, the second part will cover the neighbourhood Pallikaranai and the rest of the west side of the area, and the third part will cover the neighbourhood Thoraipakkam and the remaining east side of the area. The pictures mentioned will be represented in the appendix.
North of the 200ft Road
At the south-east side of this area lies the small sub-neighbourhood Saravana Nagar, which is a part of the bigger Perungudi. It lies between the 200ft road, OMR Road and the Corporation Road. The last one is the road which leads to the Perungudi dump yard west of this sub-neighbourhood. This area is relatively poor and there is little activity on the streets. There are only residential buildings which are all different from each other: a sign that most of it will be built by the people itself instead of a bigger housing project from the government. The houses look quite new but poorly maintained. At the edge of the neighbourhood stands a big wall which separates the urban area from the marshland. It is notable that this area is not fully crammed with houses, as can be seen in picture 1, but there is still undeveloped land remaining. From the west side one can see the extension of the Corporation Road which leads into the dump yard (picture 2). Standing in front of the entrance of the corporation road there are many trucks entering and leaving the dump yard. It is strictly forbidden to enter the dump yard, so it was not possible for me to enter it. When driving some around the entrance it was possible to enter the area with the sewage treatment plant and the edges of the dump yard. It was probably forbidden to go there, but it was badly shielded as you can see in picture 3. Piles of garbage of over three meters high are visible here, just with green and natural water bodies next to it. There even walked a family of boars who live from the garbage. One can also see the water tanks of the sewage treatment plant which were full of waste and dirty water.
When driving further to the north I reached Telephone Nagar, also a part of Perungudi. This is a more wealthy area and one can see it is all newly build. The roads are new and well maintained, and there is also some high-rise. There are even some gated communities
present (picture 4). These are building complexes with a wall around with only one entrance which will be manned by a security guard to prevent unwelcome people. There is a small separation between the urban area and the marsh consisting of a fence. At the north of this small neighbourhood lies a water tank named Perungudi Lake. When leaving Telephone Nagar to the north we enter a significantly poorer district what can be called a “slum”: Anjugam Ammaiyar Nagar. Driving through this neighbourhood can give one a less safe feeling. The people living here do not seem to approve my presence. Their houses are built of wood, bad concrete and corrugated roofs. The roads are not paved and there is garbage everywhere. Most interesting of this area is probably the huge stone wall which separates these people from the marshland and the train station in the north (picture 5).
Driving further to the west I pass by the Perungudi Train Station and the Velachery Train Station. The track between these stations borders the marshland. Both of these station are secured and protected from “unwelcome” guests. It is only possible to drive through the north side of the track. This area is currently under development, but you can see remaining parts of the former Pallikaranai marshland (picture 6). South of the Velachery Train Station is an area which is used for train repairing and housing for workers of the train station. When riding south at Velachery Main Road to the second part of the observation, we only pass the Centre for Wind Energy Technology; a research and development institute on renewable energy of the government, ironically build in the middle of the marsh.
West of Pallikaranai Marsh
Passing the 200ft road while driving through the Velachery Road there immediately rises a
big building on the east. This is the National Institute of Ocean Technology, and has an interesting history of settlement which will be discussed in the next chapter. When passing this institute into the big neighbourhood Pallikaranai the first thing that is really striking is the mix of poor low rise settlement, and newly build high rise buildings. A second interesting thing is that although this area is now highly dense, you can still see remaining parts of the marshland in between of the buildings (picture 7). In the north of the district, next to the institute, are found mostly poor residential buildings. This area could also be identified as a slum. The roads are very bad, the houses are built of wood or four simple walls of bad concrete, and there is waste everywhere. The most northern part of this area of this neighbourhood seems very poor. When reaching the edge of the area in the north-east, we see a lot of undeveloped plots all the way along the transition area between the developed area and the marshland. All of these plots seem to be owned by private actors, which is visible through demarcation of builders and poles (picture 8). There are a lot of plots still undeveloped, but you can see it will not take too long before these will also be developed, because most of the plots just before these are currently under construction. The official borders between the neighbourhood Pallkaranai and the Pallikaranai Marsh are indicated by concrete structures which stand all the way along the marshland (picture 9), and there are no walls or fences between them, which is the case in the northern part of the marsh. More about these plots and borders will be discussed in following chapters.
When driving further to the south following the edges of the urban area, the poor and expensive houses become more mixed. The cheap houses we found in the north are also 13
present over here, but here and there are some big new apartments rising from the ground. Big apartment blocks (picture 10) are alternated with very poor housing blocks (picture 11). There are even some sort of villas (picture 12) and a kind of gated communities (picture 13) built at the border of the marshland. This whole area seems deserted and desolate. This is mainly due to the vacancy of the houses as has been said in an earlier chapter. Together with all the construction sites and garbage along the road, the area does not seem to be attractive to live in nowadays, despite of the beautiful view of the marshland.
The area south of the official neighbourhood Pallikaranai is a more new and wealthier one. All of the buildings in this area are newly built or still under construction. Over here I probably found the best example of a gated community: Isha’s Signature Villas, an expensive apartment complex with a big gate guarded by two men (picture 14). On the other side of the road is the complete opposite of this developed luxury environment. Here we see a wonderful pond with birds and trees around it, but again there are poor houses and clouds of smoke surrounding the natural landscape.
East of Pallikaranai Marsh
From the neighbourhood Pallikaranai we drive the ECR Link Road to Thoraipakkam in the east. At the north side of this road lies the marsh, and at the south also lies a marshland, but this one is not officially named Pallikaranai marsh anymore. At this road we find first a big power plant and next to it is the ECLOT SEZ, a big IT-Park. The main part of this park is not accessible for outsiders, but some parts were accessible. In this park was a totally different kind of atmosphere than in all the other parts I have been to. All the people were well dressed, the buildings were new and of high
technology, and everything looked more western. The big building at the end of the park can be seen everywhere in the Pallikaranai marsh (picture 15), and is therefore a good example for the contrast between the nature and urban development in this area. Another example is picture 16, where you can see water buffalos walking through the shallow water underneath a bridge and water/gas tubes, with a building under construction in the background. To drive further to the north you will have to follow the OMR Road, the road which is a very crowded It-Expressway which connects the south of Chennai with the centre of the city. For Chennai’s standards, it is a very well maintained road. It is quite new, and the people I spoke to on this road said the renovation of this road was very welcome because it strongly improved the flow of the traffic. This road is the lifeline of Thoraipakkam, where many businesses is concentrated along this road. This counts for the big and expansive IT-buildings, and also for the small retail business and widespread Chai stalls.
At the west side of this road, the side of the Pallikaranai Marsh, are the poorer housing districts. This neighbourhood lies just behind the small stroke of high class hotels and company buildings next to the road. These neighbourhoods are hidden from the people who travel on this road, and there are no good roads entering it. The roads that are available for a car are again poorly maintained and rarely paved. Most of the houses are built of concrete and actually look quite good. This however, varies strongly per house. The feeling in this neighbourhood is, in contrast to the northern area, actually pretty good. There is a lot of street activity, the people look happy, and they seem to like my presence. This neighbourhood can therefore not be
qualified as a slum, while the area next to the train station in the north probably can. All these areas, at the north of the 200ft Road, the west and the east of the marshland, are characterized by two types of contrasts: the contrast of nature and development, and the contrast between poor and rich. The contrast between the nature and the urban development is visible in the whole area. High-rise is visible from every part of the marsh, and even in the marsh itself are future plans of development visible. Maybe the best example is the 200ft Road which cuts straight through the marsh. The other contrast is one between the poor and rich development, where the residences are mostly poor and office areas are mostly rich. This contrast is mostly seen in the district of Thoraipakkam, where poor people standing at chai shops look up to the well-dressed IT-businessman working in enormous glass buildings. But not only here, also in the other neighbourhoods around the marsh, and actually in whole Chennai, there is a strong mix and contrast between poor and rich people, between poor housing and luxury buildings, and this just seems to be how the environment looks like in a southern Indian megacity.
Figure 3: Borders of the marsh in 2014 according to own observations.
Changes of the area in the recent history (2000-2014)
During the observations, every location I went was marked by a GPS. In this way I could do an accurate identification of the outer borders of the marsh. These borders are shown in figure 3, where the red line maps the current borders between urban and non-urban areas. The borders of the marsh in an orange line, and the type of settlement in 2008, are shown in figure 4. Areas on which is already been built or which currently are under construction, are defined as urban. Natural areas or areas which are planned to be built up but still are not under construction, are defined as non-urban areas. When comparing this map of the current borders with the map with the borders in 2008, one could notice a few changes over the last six years. The historical view of Google Earth is used to see physical changes of the landscape since 2000.
Figure 4: Borders and types of settlement in the Pallikaranai region (Chennai City Connect & Care Earth, N.D.).
The part northern of 200ft. Road, the area which is not protected by the forest Department, has changed a lot over the last 14 years. Google Earth historical view shows that the Perungudi dump yard, which lies in the middle of this area, grew significantly over this period. It stretches over almost the entire length of the marsh, and also grows in the width by almost reaching 200ft. Road. The outer borders of this area seem to be unchanged. This area is not protected by the Forest Department, but it is protected against encroachment with a big wall all around the marsh. This also counts for big parts of the east side of the Pallikaranai Marsh below 200ft. Road. This IT-corridor did not grow substantially to the west side because it already lies against to the borders of the protected wetland.
The south-eastern area did change a lot in recent years. Figures 5 and 6 show a big difference of this area between the satellite pictures taken by Google Earth in 2006 and 2014 (Google Earth, 2006 & 2014). As one could see, the entire area which is not under the protection of the Forest Department, is now fully built over. These are the yellow parts in the map of 2008. The light green parts in this map are settlements of the IT-companies. They were partly under construction in 2008, but now in 2014 the construction is completed and the companies are in full operation.
Figure 5: Satellite image of south-east Pallikaranai in 2006 (Google Earth, 2006)
Although the area on the southwest side of the Pallikaranai Marsh is under protection of the Forest Department, satellite images of Google Earth and my own observations show that big parts of this area are currently under construction, or already used for residential purposes. The images on Google Earth are showing almost no buildings at all in this area in 2006, but the images of 2014 are revealing several construction sites and buildings. This is consistent with my observations in the area.
The residential neighbourhood Pallikaranai in the west expanded considerably over the last decade. The images of Google Earth show that the urban area did grew further and further to the east in this period. Especially the southern part of this residential area experienced a rapid growth. However, according to these images and my observations, the official borders of the protected marshland are not exceeded.
All concluding, it seems that the protected area of the Pallikaranai Marsh by the Forest Department, did not get affected by urbanization for the most part in recent years. The south-western part does know several construction sites. The borders of the part north of 200ft. Road are not changed either, but the dump yard grew significantly and took more and more space.
Figure 6: Satellite image of south-east Pallikaranai in 2014 (Google Earth, 2014).
Future situation of the Pallikaranai Marsh
Waste dumping, polluting and the Perungudi dump yard
Solid waste management
The growth of Chennai both by population numbers as by welfare, has led to a new major problem of the city: waste. Due to the growth of the city, the collection of solid waste grew from 600 to 3500 tons per day in the last 20 years (Solid Waste Landfill Management, 2007). Now in 2014 the government of Chennai states that the current collection of waste has an amount of 4500 tons per day, of which 2200-2400 tons are for the Perungudi dump site (Chennai Corporation, 2014). 68% Percent of this garbage consists of residential waste, 16% commercial waste, 14% institutional waste and 2% industrial waste. Most of the solid waste collection is organized and executed by the corporation of Chennai, but around one third of the collection is done by private actors in collaboration with the government of Chennai. The system they use has to follow several rules issued by the government of India (Solid Waste Landfill Management, 2007):
▪ Source segregation and storage at source ▪ Door to door collection
▪ Abolition of open storage ▪ Daily sweeping of the street
▪ Transportation of waste in covered vehicles ▪ Waste processing by composting or energy recovery
▪ Disposal of inerts by sanitary landfilling
This work is done by around 10000 worker of the government, and another 2000 of the private actors. The government has a slightly different way of collecting the garbage, but most of it is the same. It starts at the residents place. In June 2003 the government introduced the door to door collection system
to reduce environmental effects caused by the former street bin collection system. 95% of the households are covered under this system where 2800 tricycles go down the doorsteps to collect the garbage. After picking up this garbage, they will take it to transfer stations from where it will be transported to the dumpsites through lorries. The result of this system is the reduction from 14000 to 1300 bins in 2004. The government itself speaks about the tricycle as a wonderful tool and a great system which seems to work, so the Indian governments rule about door to door collection seems to be respected. But this system also has its disadvantages. Thousands of people are dependent on street waste. These waste pickers form their own informal economy which is from great importance of the city. This economy ensures a lot of separation of garbage and recycling, something that also reduces the city’s carbon footprint. However, the importance of this economy is not recognized by the government, and these people are being displaced and their work is taken (Transparent Chennai, 2014).
A rule which is not being followed is the daily sweeping of the street. According to the previously mentioned Solid Waste Landfill Management, the main reason for this sweeping are shortage of sanitary workers, public holidays and lack of financial support. The city also tries to work on source segregation and introduced a program in January 2004 concerning waste segregation, recycling and composting. Because this program has its basis at the houses and the people themselves, they also initiated an awareness program among the people. The effect and size of this initiative is however questionable. When talking to the people in the area around the Pallikaranai Marsh, hardly anyone knew something about the plans going on concerning the waste. They just follow the 17
rules and procedures of the people picking up their garbage. In an interview with the councillor of Thoraipakkam (personal communication, 6-May-2014) he says this is mainly because a lot of government policies need a degree of privacy, and therefore the people will only know about the plans when things will actually change. This will only happen when the planners receive a green light from higher institutions.
The implementation of waste processing by composting is going well according to the Solid Waste Landfill Management. Most of the organic material can now be thrown in composting units at 106 places in the city. This system also results in less transportation costs and environmental issues. The Chennai Corporation also has plans for recovering energy from the waste, but these plans are still in their development phase and have yet to be implemented.
Altogether it looks like the Chennai Corporation really does its best to get a well-organized and environmental friendly waste disposal system. However, it seems to be very difficult to fulfil all the requirements of the national government. This is caused by issues like the rapid growth of the city, not enough financial space and a lack of skilled personal at the waste management.
Perungudi Dump yard
The previous discussed waste disposal system ends at two major dump yards: Kodungaiyur and Perungudi. We will focus on the Perungudi dumpsite, because this lies in the middle of the Pallikaranai Marsh. Everyday 2200 to 2400MT garbage is brought here by big lorries (Chennai Corporation, 2014). The area covers an area of 200 acres, and lies in the centre of the northern part of the marsh above the 200ft Road. It is used for over 25 years now, but during this period it has grown
substantially. This growth, combined with pollution, causes big threats for the biodiversity and nature conservation.
Environmental effects
It seems that the dumpsite affects both quality as the quantity of the marshland. Firstly, the 200 acres the dump yard covers is lost for any kind of nature. And secondly, and probably the most important one, is the area surrounding the dump yard is that heavily contaminated, that in most of this area soil degradation and strong loss of biodiversity took place. An assessment of the department of civil engineering found that the area around the dump yard is subjected to many environmental changes due to leakage from the waste in recent years (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, 2008). This leads to contamination of the ground and groundwater, and also to a different chemical composition of the soil. Especially the amount of sulphate and chloride was increased due to the dump yard, and the future predictions of this university are that this will worsen if nothing will be done about the leakage. An important consequence of this change is the deterioration of the soil, which leads to a limitation of the vegetation that will grow in the marsh. The part northern of the marsh should be planned as an area of a beautiful green park in the future, but according to the head of Care Earth Trust, an NGO which tries to project the marsh, this area is so heavily contaminated that it is impossible to grow all kinds of plants over there (Deccan Chronicle, 2013). The head of the organization, Jayshree Vencatesan, also states in this article that it is not possible to revive the entire wetland to its core. According to her some parts are recoverable, but most parts are too damaged by the garbage and the water flow has completely been choked by plastics. In 2009, a report appointed to a panel by the higher court of Madras even stated: “Alteration of 18
natural water courses by unregulated dumping in the marshland has led to calamitous flooding in the area” (The Times of India, 2011).
This degradation of soil is not the only ground problem. According to the director of Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research Dr. Ramachandran, the marshland would normally act as “a bowl for carbon sequestration” (Deccan Chronicle, 2013). A result of the current dumping is that this carbon filling does not take place: aquatic plants cannot grow in a polluted environment, and therefore their sedimentation will stop. The area is now even emitting dangerous methane gas, which is bad for the environment, can be dangerous for the health of the people living in surrounding houses and can cause fires.
Fires and health consequences
These fires occur frequently in the marsh and the dump yard. The Hindu (2011) and The Times (2011) of India reported a large fire in 21 march 2011 . There were fires seen from over 5 meters high and it ravaged for over 4 hours. All the nesting birds were killed and plant life reduces to ashes. A scientist from Care Earth states in the report of The Times (2011) that further research to the origin of these fires is necessary to prevent more fires. He even says it is evident that the methane gas in the marsh has led to these fires or made
it worse. It is however, not very clear how these fires started. In October 2008 the Chennai Corporation said it would stop burning garbage at the dump yard (Toxic Watch, 2008). They will do it somewhere else on a safer place, they appointed security personal to prevent (illegal) dumping and there would be water tanks spread over the dump yard which could be used in case of fires. Commissioner of the Chennai Corporation D. Karthickeyan blames the fires on miscreant who enter the dump yard for burning their waste or getting scrap metal out of it (New Indian Express, 2012). According to some residents in Thoraipakkam these fires occur regularly. When the wind blows in their direction it causes a thick smoke, difficulty breathing and irritated eyes (The Hindu, 2014). These fires are not the only reason for health problems among the people living around the Pallikaranai Marsh. Residents in these areas complain about the menace of houseflies for four months of the year, which is so bad that they cannot even open the windows to get air. It is, however, the question to what extent people actually would like open their windows with all the pollution. On the other hand, not every house has windows, so not everybody has a choice. This is another major problem for these people. They complain again about breathing problems, itching eyes and rashes (The Hindu, 2014). The water is also deeply contaminated and sometimes has a red colour. The plants wilt in it, and it is definitely not drinkable. A resident of Thoraipakkam says it is so bad, that he has to spend 200 Rupees a day on purchasing water for drinking, cooking and washing (Toxic Watch, 2008). Besides this expenditure for water, he also spends 2000 Rupees a month on medical expenses for his family.
It seems that the Perungudi dumpsite is a very unwelcome presence in the Pallikaranai Figure 7: A big fire at the dump site in 2014 (The Hindu, 2014).
Marsh. However, due to the fast growing population and economy of Chennai it may be necessary evil. The growing amount of trash has to go somewhere, and it cannot stay on the streets. The quality of the marsh seems to suffer heavily under this dump yard, but the last couple of years the Chennai corporation did not do a lot about it. The protests of activists, scientists and above all the residents are getting bigger and bigger, and it is the question how this will influence the future of the presence of the Perungudi dumpsite and the quality of the Pallikaranai Marsh.
Future plans of the government
The previous discussed waste problem and the earlier discussed ongoing growth of the city causes the Chennai Corporation huge challenges. It is not easy to come up with a simple solution because these two problems could get in each other’s way. When the city decides to protect all the nature there won’t be enough space for the growing population, and when the city decides to invest only in urban development, this could threaten the nature. It can be difficult to get the right balance between conserving nature and the sometimes unavoidable urbanisation. This certainly counts for developing countries, where there is always a shortage of money and where corruption is not uncommon. This corruption is a great deal in India. Stats show that India is ranked 16th in a list of world’s
most corrupt countries (Nationmaster, 2009), and in 2012 there even came an anti-corruption party (BBC, 2014). Because of this corruption, probably part due to big companies, the government of Chennai stands under great pressure for fulfilling their mostly commercial needs. Nevertheless, it seems to be willing to protect their green areas, and there comes more and more awareness of the importance of these areas. This resulted in the allocation of a part of the Pallikaranai Marsh to the Forest Department in April 2007. This
resulted in a far better protection of the area, but it is questionable if they did anything about the contamination of the area, and some urbanization of the protected area is still going on. There are a few rules concerning the area protected by the Forest department everybody is obligated to stick to.
Protection against encroachment
It is forbidden for anyone to enter the part of the marsh that is protected by the Forest Department. Only members of this department are allowed to enter here. Since not everywhere are physical borders, it is possible for everybody to enter, but when you get caught you will have to pay a big fine. The only way to enter it legally is when you got permission from the Forest Department, which I got. In an interview with the Chief Conservator of Forests Mr. Lakshmi Narayan, he told me the department has several security people patrolling the area and keeping an eye on people who would enter it (personal communication, 8-May-2014). There are also some control houses located in the marsh, mostly unmanned. Narayan says the security is not optimal yet, but they are working on a plan to make it better.
It is also strictly forbidden for anyone to build in the area which is protected by the Forest Department. The Chief Urban Planner Chennai Corporation Dr. S. Rajasekarapandian tells in an interview that this is a big crime, and when somebody tries to build something on this area they would get arrested and thrown in prison immediately (personal communication, 1-May-2014). Besides, he says, because of the strict regulation it is impossible for anyone to build in this area. Nevertheless there is a very little “slum” on the west side of Pallikaranai marsh which is located in the protected area. The people of these houses are fighting in court for several years to maintain their location, but during this time they can still stay
in their home. There are a few exceptions on the rule of no-encroachment in the marshland. These exceptions are only reserved for matters of national interest, according to the Chief Urban Planner. This rule of exception could be widely interpretable. A case where it is used is the case of the National Institute of Ocean Technology. This building of over 20.000 acres is built in the centre of the marsh.
Plans of the government
In 2008 the Chennai Corporation came up with the Second Masterplan for Chennai Metropolitan Area, 2026 (CMDA Chennai, 2008). In this plan they composed their vision, strategies and action plans concerning future development in Chennai. The region of the Pallikaranai Marsh is also included in this plan and was elaborated in combination with the interview I had with the Chief Urban Planning Dr. S. Rajasekarapandian in the next paragraph.
The map in figure 8 (CMDA, 2008) shows us
the land use map of the Pallikaranai Marsh and its surroundings according to the wishes of the master plan in 2026. A few aspects are different than nowadays or otherwise worth of notice. The first aspect is setting of the southern boundaries of the marshland. This map shows us only the area which is protected by the Forest department and the part above the 200ft Road according to the Chief Urban Planner. This is inconsistent with the borders that my guide told me. He said the whole area above the ECR Link Road belongs to the protected area. The Chief Urban Planner says the planned road on the south is almost the official border of the protected area. This road should connect Medavakkam with Thoraipakkam. It will be built as some kind of bridge which stands on pillars so it does not cut the marshland. A second aspect which got the attention was the ring around the neighbourhood Pallikaranai which in the map is classified as agricultural. This means it will not be urbanised. The Chief Urban Planner does not say anything about this area as agricultural, but says it is all owned by private
actors. He thinks it will be developed by them because of the growing urban pressure. He also thinks this will not go that fast because of the location is not very attractive for settlers due to the bad infrastructure and therefore bad accessibility of this ring. This bad infrastructure is also the reason why the area will not know any high-rise in the future. According to the law a building may only exceed the height of 6 meter if the road next to it is 15 meters or wider. The third aspect is that the present marshland remains intact according to the map. This means they assume the rules set by the Forest Department will work.
Movement of the dump yard
The fourth and last aspect that should be covered is the northern part of the marshland. This area includes the Perungudi Dump Yard. The map says this area will be partly conserved area just like the rest of the marsh, and partly institutional area. This means the institutional area will probably developed and the rest should be nature. Officials of the Chennai Corporation said in October 2012 that the Perungudi dumpsite will be closed in 18 months and that the waste will we brought to 4 new dumpsites out of the city at the beginning of 2014 (Times of India, 2012). This means the dump yard would have already been gone by now. But at this very moment the dump yard is still fully operating and getting even bigger. In an interview I had with the mayor of Chennai, Saidai Duraisamy, he said exactly the same to us (personal communication, 6-May-2014). The plans were all done, and the movement of the dump yard out of the city would take place when the elections were finished (April-May), and it would take 18 months. The dump yard will then be fully gone, cleaned and covered. The plan is to build a large park on top of it for recreational purposes. It is, however, very hard to have faith in this project because of
the continuous postponement of the governmental plans. The fact that it has been postponed for almost two years already says a lot. Another reason is the physical problems of moving the entire dumpsite and cleaning it all up according to my guide. He says the amount of garbage is too big to just move it in such short time, as well as it will never be possible to clean the entire area from its toxics, not to mention in such short period. The future of the Pallikaranai Marsh depends on the thoroughness of the current plans and the understanding of the importance of an ecosystem like this. It looks like the allocation of a big part of the marsh to the Forest Department was a big step in conserving the area. Strict rules were taken and mostly respected. The chance that this area will be further urbanized looks very small. The northern part is a different story. The government has big plans about removing the dumpsite, but this is already postponed for two years. The is very likely that the dump yard will move one day, but it is the question if the higher authorities will be decisive enough to take action in short time. External pressures from residents, activists and scientists will probably speed up this process. It is, however, the question in which matter the marsh will return to a fully clean ecosystem that is not contaminated anymore by the dump site.
Role of Indian Politics
In previous chapters we discussed the organization of the government in Chennai and the Pallikaranai Marsh. This contained primarily the structure of it, but not the way how it works in practical manner. Indian governing in its organization of spatial management seems quite similar of that we know in The Netherlands, but the way it works practically differs a lot. This could have a lot of consequences for the way they make and
execute policy concerning urbanization and the marshland. There are four main topics that were striking while interviewing six different people, who are listed in the appendix. These topics consist of hierarchy, confidence in itself and others, communication and backroom politics.
Hierarchy
During the research this seemed to be a very important matter in Indian society. This applies for daily business, working places and not the last in the government. The most important person in Chennai is the ruling party AIADMK and its mayor. He rules the city and can barely be contradicted by his subordinates. This means he gets very little resistance and everybody follows his lead. This came clearly to light when I first had an interview with the councillor and later with the mayor. After the interview with the mayor I had to ask the councillor another few questions and made an appointment with him through his assistant. When I arrived to talk to him, he thought I would just come there to thank him for the interview. But when I said I wanted to talk to him a little bit more about the marshland, he immediately refused to say anything more about it because I already spoke to the mayor. He said that the mayor knew everything the best, and he could not tell me anything extra. He seems to be afraid of telling something different than the mayor, which would make him look having another vision then the mayor. The sensitivity of the topic could also have played a role in the interviews we had. It is possible that the mayor and the councillor where cautious in the answers they gave me, making sure their answers would not be used negatively in the media or in other ways. This mayor looks very powerful and he has a broad network. During the interview he knew every chief of the departments and called them for us to speak with them. None of them refused because
they would not have any time, and they all were very helpful because the mayor asked them.
Confidence
All the municipal officers I spoke to had a lot of confidence in themselves and in the others. They are very sure their plans will succeed, and when a critical question is asked they react as if there is no other possibility than their own plan will succeed. None of them thought the dumpsite would stay there, none of them thought there could be any urbanization of the marshland and all were very confident of their own success. It seemed that they all stuck to the official line of the party. They also did not interfere with the business of someone else. They only want to talk about their own organization or activities, and they act like they have nothing to do with other actors. Not even about their own predecessors. According to the Chief Conservator of Forests they do not say anything about them because they respect their past commitment and privacy.
Communication
A possible consequence of this way of working is a poor transmission of information. The Chief Conservator of Forests said that the current policymakers don’t get any information from their predecessors. When the present policymakers do not get any information from them about earlier periods, they cannot learn anything from the situation or the policymakers back then. The same happens between the different institutions. The mayor wants the dump yard to move to another place outside Chennai, just like the councillor who has to follow the lead of the mayor. But the Chief conservator of Forest is against it because he thinks this is only moving the problem. All of these people work for the government, but it seems that some sub-divisions have different visions concerning the
marsh, whereas it is more efficient if all these actors would cooperate.
Backroom Politics
Like in other developing countries there is a lot of corruption we discussed in earlier chapters. Policymakers receive bribes from companies and therefore adapt their policy. This corruption does not happen in public, but all in secret. The same happens, legally, in mutual agreements. These go in silence and they try to keep in under the table. This leads to a low level of transparency of the government towards the public.
A very important conclusion one could take is that hierarchy is a very important factor in making policy. There is a top-down approach which everybody has to follow. This means the extent of urbanization and protection of the Pallikaranai Marsh is very dependent on politics and the vision of the leaders of the Chennai Corporation. The current ones seem to understand the importance of this area, but due to external pressure and ongoing postponement it is the question if they will act like it. Backroom politics and maybe even bribes could slow their plans down. The confidence the different actors have in themselves and each other could lead to direct decision making, but better communication among the institutions could lead to better cooperation and better agreements, which everybody is satisfied with. Conclusion
In the introduction of this thesis we pointed out the rapid growth of Chennai and the effect it has on the Pallikaranai Marsh. Two problems were defined: the ongoing situation of encroachment of the marsh since the growing city reached the edges of the marshland, and the arrival of the Perungudi dump yard which would pollute the marsh. To
research the presence and scale of these problems we raised he following research question:
How does urbanization and the accompanying waste problem affect the Pallikaranai Marsh in a physical manner, looking at changes of the marsh and its surroundings through a planological point of view, without going deep into the ecological perspective?
To research the way of urbanization one should first look at the present urban environment in the area. It seems that the entire surroundings of the marshland are completely packed with urban development. The kind of development differs substantially, from a modern research centre in the south, to slums in the north, and from an IT-highway is the east, to a regular resident neighbourhood in the west. This development is characterized by two types of contrasts: the contrast of nature and development, and the contrast between poor and rich. All these things go hand in hand. Luxurious gated communities are located right next to the slums, and little swamps and other natural habitat is present in the middle of the new urban areas.
Since the Forest Department took over a big part of the marsh, the reduction of the size of the marshland nearly stopped. Due to strict regulation and heavy penalties the urbanization of the marshland was brought to a stop. After this change of jurisdiction in 2007 there only occurred encroachment of the marshland for developments of national interest, like the National Institute of Ocean Technology. Despite this change, there are still some illegal settlements in the area where long lawsuits are running against. The current urban area will probably get more densified due to the growing pressure of growth of the city, but it seems that the rules of the Forest 24
Department will retain most of the current territory.
The Perungudi dump yard is one of the other forms of encroachment in the Pallikaranai marsh. The growth of Chennai and its accompanying growth of waste is the main problem for the ever growing dump yard. The quality of the marsh and the health of the surrounding citizens suffers heavily under the dump yard. It seemed that protests of activists, scientist and residents had no impact on the government. However, the last couple of years it seems that the government is starting to recognize and understand the contamination problem. They now have big plans to remove the dump yard out of the city and clean and reshape the area to a park. Whether this will happen in short time depends on the decisiveness of the government and the degree of external pressure they will be under.
The allocation of a large part of the marshland to the Forest Department has protected it in recent years, and future plans of the government are looking good for the conservation and even the improvement of the marsh. It is, however, questionable when and if these measures will be taken, and in which matter corruption or other priorities are
playing a role. All concluding it will really depend on the external pressure and fortitude of the government whether the urbanization and the accompanying waste problem will affect the Pallikaranai Marsh in the future.
Discussion
This research gives a broad and mainly descriptive view on the urbanization of the wetland. Therefore it probably cannot be used by policy makers in the Pallikaranai region. It does give a clear view on the situation and future predictions of the marshland and the dumpsite, and could therefore be useful for anyone who is interested in this situation. This could be local residents, people working in the field of urbanization or waste problems, or could be used in a multiple case study where it can be compared with similar cases.
Future research could be done by several disciplines. An ecologist could dig deeper in the degree and composition of the contamination due to the Perungudi dump yard. An urban planner could investigate and estimate what the probable scenarios are concerning the growth of the city, and a city-planner could do deeper research whether the relocation of the dump yard is possible or not.
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