Story trail gives participants a glimpse of the Adyar’s connection to Chennai

Delegation from U.S. and students explore Adyar River's cultural history and urbanization challenges with local experts.

A group, which included a delegation from the United States (U.S.) and students from various institutions, got a glimpse of the Adyar and its deep connection to the city’s cultural and hydrological history as part of a story trail held along its various stretches on Saturday.

The significance of the Adyar and the challenges it faces owing to rapid urbanisation were discussed at the trail led by V. Sriram, historian, and S. Thirunavukkarasu, former Water Resources Department (WRD) engineer, and senior advisor, Care Earth Trust.

Tracing the cultural history of the Adyar, Mr. Sriram said the waterway was once important for the weaver community in areas such as Saidapet, Mambalam, and Anakaputhur, but has now lost its significance. It was also once an important freshwater source for weavers. The story trail covered aspects of how the city flourished around the river in the past decades and current state of the waterway.

Elaborating on the river’s ecological and hydrological aspects, Mr. Thirunavukkarasu said it collected surplus water from nearly 457 tanks. The density of tanks per square mile led to frequent flooding in the past decades. However, there were no gauging sites in the southern arm to collate data on the flow of water. Data on peak floods in the Adyar was only available for the northern arm from the Chembarambakkam reservoir, he said. The need to gather data on rivers and install stream and rain gauges to understand flood risks was also discussed.

The delegation from the U.S., which included Steven Metzler, Director, Water Resources, San Antonio River Authority, and Julia McCarthy, Deputy Director, Mitigation Division, Federal Emergency Management Agency, visited the river near the Maraimalai Adigal bridge and Kotturpuram. The U.S. delegates will share their experiences on the restoration of San Antonio River during meetings with various stakeholders.

Gwendolyn G. Llewellyn, Acting Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Chennai, and Jeanne Briganti, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Consulate General Chennai, took part in the story trail. Students from Anna University, MOP Vaishnav College, and Rajalakshmi Engineering College also participated.