A troublesome trifecta in Triplicane

Can you take these three issues and resolve them for us? That is the question residents of the locality have for candidates in the fray in the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni constituency. Triplicane can do without this trifecta of pains: stray cattle, unauthorised parking on roads around Sri Parthasarathy temple and petty shops that threaten to outnumber dwelling units. When issues fester for decades, people get inured to them, accommodate them, and learn to conduct the regular transactions of life around these pain points. These issues can get normalised to the point they seem non-existent until they raise their deadly horns again. And then, they receive air time only to get normalised all over again.

Triplicane can do without this trifecta of pains: stray cattle, unauthorised parking on roads around Sri Parthasarathy temple and petty shops that threaten to outnumber dwelling units. When issues fester for decades, people get inured to them, accommodate them, and learn to conduct the regular transactions of life around these pain points. These issues can get normalised to the point they seem non-existent until they raise their deadly horns again. And then, they receive air time only to get normalised all over again.

T.J. Ramani is a key member of Srinivas Young Men’s Association (SYMA). What “The Alley Project” has meant to Detroit, SYMA means to Triplicane. Ramani weighs in with three issues of this kind.

Established in 1977 by a bunch of youngsters fired with a desire to improve Triplicane, SYMA has locked horns with one issue, stray cattle moving about Triplicane as if they were part of the traffic. And these youngsters have greyed, but the issue stays young. And they continue to lock horns with it.

He calls it a “critical and unresolved issue” in Triplicane, noting that it has spanned “five election cycles”, actually more. SYMA would once again present this peeve to candidates in the fray for the Assembly elections. In January 2025, while taking to The Hindu on how to resolve this knotty problem, Ramani had expressed skepticism over GCC’s approach to rein in the stray cattle issue by building cattle sheds without studying the issue. 

That January 2025 report in The Hindu had also quoted a GCC worker as pointing out that despite a cattle shed functioning under the MRTS tracks in Triplicane, the streets in the locality continued to be “well-hoofed”. The worker had underlined an attitude among cattle owners in Triplicane: leave the old cows in the shed, and leave the younger ones loose. The report explained that they were emboldened to do this as the penalty system is not being strictly enforced. It brandished data provided by GCC’s Public Health department, showing no cattle owner guilty of letting a cow loose on pedestrians “has been fined ₹15,000 yet”.

As a new GCC cattle shed is in the works at Narayana Krishanaraja Puram (known as Krishnapuram), it would help to remember that the “shed-and-dread” formula alone will rid Triplicane of this stubborn problem. Offer cattle owners sheds to keep their cattle, and make them dread the possibility of a hefty fine if they think they and their cattle own the streets.