A view of the marsh from downtown Egmore
The Hindu
Members of the Chennai chapter of the College of Engineering Trivandrum Alumni Association drive the website and Instagram pages on the Pallikaranai wetland, harnessing the resources within their network
An ‘office’ operates from a flat at Cambre East, an apartment in downtown Egmore, and it is devoid of the accoutrements of officialdom. No paper rustling, no attendance tracking. In fact, there is no staff around to do a head count of. This is the contact address of CETAAC, which powers the eponymously-named website on the Pallikaranai Marsh. The group’s engagement with the marsh goes beyond running the website: it offers the lowdown on the marsh with inputs from the forest department and the Conservation Authority of the Pallikaranai Marshland (CAPML). Members of CETAAC engaged in the project root for the marsh with the enthusiasm of sports fans. Long before the pandemic, this team has been working remotely, and there is no debate on whether it will continue in this mode after the coronavirus fades away.
That is the only way they can work, having been distributed across Chennai and focussed on professional engagements that keep them distributed. CETAAC expands to College of Engineering Trivandrum Alumni Association Chennai. Besides the website, they also handle social-media pages for the marsh. The alumni offer this free service as repayment for the “debt of gratitude” they owe Chennai.
“There are more than 500 CETAAC alumni in Chennai, from the 1950s onwards. It is one of the oldest engineering colleges in India and it has alumni in senior positions in many industries and the government. Even in ISRO, there is a good number of CETAAC alumni. There is a lot of experience and potential available here,” says Biju Abraham Thomas, president.