CHENNAI: Fishermen in the Pulicat area can heave a sigh of relief as the State Board for Wildlife (SBWL) has accorded its clearance to construct training walls to stabilize the bar mouth of the Pulicat Lake.

In a statement, the State Fisheries Department said that the mouth of the Pulicat Lake gets blocked every year and fishermen are suffering as they could not venture into the sea using their boats.

"Based on requests from the fishermen, a government order was issued in October 2020 to desilt the mouth and to construct training walls for permanent stability of the bar mouth. The project will be implemented at Rs. 26.85 crore," the release said.

The department received clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on February 2, 2022. However, the Ministry laid a condition to get permission from the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) before constructing the training walls.

"Based on the condition, the department submitted the proposal to the SBWL. During an SBWL meeting held on September 26 under the chairmanship of the State Forest Minister, the SBWL has decided to recommend NBWL to accord permission for the project. Once the NBWL gives its clearance, work will commence to desilt and construct training walls immediately," the release added.

Due to net northerly littoral drift the formation of sand bars as well as spits and its migration, which is common along the east coast, the location of the entrance to the lake often migrates, sometimes also closes the entrance.

This phenomenon leads to an adverse effect of hampering the smooth movement of vessels, as the depth of the channel is reduced.

It may be noted that the design for the training walls was prepared by IIT-Madras and 2 groins will be created adjacent to the northern training wall to avoid erosion.

Moreover, the fisheries department will conduct post-construction marine biological studies to understand the impact on the corals, marine organisms, turtle nesting, and others.