Agaramthen Lake

I call it the Agaramthen or the Pathuvanchery Lake which is around 6 Kms from my place. This place is always close to my heart.

The first time I visited this lake was in September 2018 with my Camera, my NGO Director, and 3 volunteers. Instantly this lake was THE PLACE for me to relax, chill and just while away my time. Time and again i used to visit this place every Weekends and just sit there and enjoy the view.

The Lake- Description

We visited the lake from its eastern side through a farm. The farm had one pathway to enter the lake bund and we crossed a lot of palm trees, tall Rose wood trees and couple of small ponds filled with Lillies.

We stepped on top of the bund, an instant rush of wind carrying the smell of water, mud and grass, hit our faces and there we saw a beautiful piece of art. Honestly it was more like my 5th Std English Literature book. Hills in the west, which was foggy and green with the shadows of the clouds covering a part of the hill, and we saw the Perungalathur hill and the Repeater station on top.

 The banks of the rivers covered with Savannah like tall grasses, as we rubbed our legs through the grass the screech sounds of the grass with the insects paving the way for us to enter into the water, was such a treat for our Technology addicted eyes and our Spotify addicted ears.

One of the volunteers bought 2 kids of hers. and I really wish I was them. They just removed their shoes and stepped inside the cold waters. I heard them say "The floor feels like clay, it is just sucking me in", and if you have guessed me stepping inside, yes I did. The "Id" feeling of Amal just popped and he just wanted to step inside the water and experience the lake at its base.

The chill water with the small fishes biting off your toes is just a feel to die for. When inside the water the lake didn't just stop to make us feel good, it still feasted our eyes with Cormorants flying off the surface of the water where the foot leaves a trace on the water, ducks swimming and the beautiful herons and egrets still cooing as we entered into their territory.

The shores of the lake is filled with insects which a common Chennaite wouldn't have experiences, from Slithering snakes to Black Scorpions from Barn Owl to Crimson tipped Butterflies. Any nature loving person would spend a day around this lake and still will be finding new species 

Our Efforts

The lake was at maximum in its pristine form, as I realized that Lillies never grow in polluted lakes/ water bodies. The location of the lake was such, as the lake was 300 mts away from the Main Road, many of us failed to search for this lake, hence the clean waters were present. 

Since 2018, we have been working in maintaining the lake in its pristine form, and we have planted around 1500 Saplings around the bund, covering almost 2.5 Acres and we have been maintaining the saplings for the past 2 years now, and we are in the verge of creating an urban forest, and hopefully we do with 100% survival ratio. 

Please do pay a visit to the lake, and it really does deserve a pollution free visit from us. 

I keep saying this to anyone i meet, enjoy the little things in life, and enjoy the places around you. Not necessarily we will have to travel to North America or Europe to experience the above, we can get it get the same dopamine with much lesser Paisa from your pockets

The beautiful lake behind Bharath University

Hi there,

I have always wanted to experience the joy of exploring places around the place I reside at.

I am from Tambaram,Chennai.

After my 10th Grade at La Chatelaine, Valasaravakkam, we moved to Tambaram to my Grand Parent's place. Moving to Tambaram was a huge step for me, leaving my friends, school crushes, my Kaalan Shop and Pani Puri anna was pretty difficult.

But i never realised that change is constant back then, hence it was hard for me to accept the change, but eventually as time passed, i got accustomed to the change.

My Grandfather had an old cycle which he used to buy ration. I used to take the cycle and roam around the Suburbs of Selaiyur. Surprisingly, i never found this attachment to nature before that, but when i started to roam around, i realized the love for it.

Selaiyur never failed to surprise me with its beautiful resources. We had beautiful lakes, ponds and small  water reservoirs around.

Felt like expressing my emotions for this small lake behind the famous Bharat University. From the outside when you take a look at the the university, you can very well realize that it is built inside a lake, by the instant fall from the road. now you would have realized it. The aforementioned small lake is part of a bigger one we can never imagine. The lake should have been atleast 250 Acres, but now its shrunk to less than 60 Acres and the real estate around the place is still booming.

The 1st time when i went there was in 2011, when i was School kid and use to visit that place because it was clean. It had no hyacinth, no effluents released to it. That was my first time to visually see a snake in the wild. The snake crawled gently and caught its prey which was a duckling quaking to find its mother.

The area was surrounded with lush green grassland, buffalo inside the lake, frogs around, birds and ofcourse Snakes. Along with this regular creatures, i have also seen mongoose, egrets, herons and ducks wandering the lake. The empty grassland used to be a play area for the kids, and I have seen them playing football.

The lake should be approx. 10ft deep and its spread in the shape of an irregular "L". Back then I had a small opening down the road to sit down at the banks of the lake, and the number of people around the lake were also less. So it used to be quite and peaceful.

After starting my UG, i hardly had anytime to wander around, but during my Summer Holidays, i again took my cycle and went to the lake. As expected i saw a lot of change now. The change would include Water Hyacinth, Effluents and Styrofoam floating over the lake and ofcourse the real estate in the place.

The times were so that, the government never took any initiatives in preserving the water reservoirs inside the city, hence the place was abused, but now i feel people have realized the importance of the lake and they are taking steps to preserve it

The previously mentioned open area to sit and relax is now filled with concrete house, and as guessed the place is screwed. 

When you get a chance please do visit the lake, it was once a lush watery spot, but now its just a hyacinth filled pit, still It deserves the visual love from humans from time to time.

Location-  

12°54'16.7"N 80°08'21.4"E