Cycle rally sparks interest in lake restoration

After pitstops at Dharmapuri, Vellore and Kanchipuram (among others) to document the state of waterbodies, the team will interact with students, environmentalists and volunteers at Loyola and Pachaiyappa’s College on February 17, before continuing their journey towards Kanyakumari. 

Piyush said people were very keen to save the water bodies. “We met many small groups of people and activists, who were eager to work towards restoring lakes and ponds in their vicinities. We arrived at two important decisions – the encroachments should be done away with and the restoration of these waterbodies should be top priority,” he said, adding that a group in Walajapet (near Vellore) have already undertaken the restoration of a local pond. 

Umashankar, a member of the Dharmapuri Citizen’s Forum who is a part of this rally, said that their aim was to encourage people to restore a lake in their region. “In Dharmapuri, the Elakkyampatty Lake was recently restored. Next, we plan to restore the Kattampatti Lake here. We have studied the state in which the water bodies are in and proved beyond a doubt that we need to act fast to save our lakes and rivers,” he said. 

Piyush added that the Palar river was in a pathetic state. “Along the Palar, there are a lot of encroachments and the quality of drinking water is extremely bad. All across Tamil Nadu, there is a problem of drinking water mixing with sewage,” he noted.