A lake and a community

A section of residents in Thalambur are getting to be on first-name terms with a waterbody in their locality

The lake next door will remain a “stranger” till you begin to enjoy first-name familiarity with its stakeholders — the plants, the trees, the birds, the butterflies and the creepy-crawlies. When names are exchanged, the first step towards friendship is taken. The restoration of Thalambur lake accounts for this fact and one more. Here is the other one: The lake is a living organism that sustains the local community — the resident groups primarily among them — and should in turn be sustained by it. In an allied thought, the neighbourhood lake ought to be a source of learning about wetland ecology for the schools in its vicinity. There are signs that this philosophy is at work. Two residents’ associations — Arihant Heirloom Flat Owners Association and Adroit District Apartment Association — and a residents-driven environment collective, Thalambur Green Group, have thrown themselves into Thalambur lake-protection initiatives.