Water hyacinth saves lives at an abandoned quarry in Chennai Metropolitan Area

The Ottiyambakkam panchayat had an harrowingly difficult time keeping people from swimming in the deadly quarry with its protruding rocks under the water. There had been many deaths. And then nature intervened, and the fatal accidents stopped. An invasive, floating weed that is a bane of water sources everywhere, the water hyacinth is not just tolerated in the quarry but welcomed

What you see in Ottiyambakkam is straight out of Lawley Road in R.K. Narayan’s delectably imaginary, pint-sized but variegated universe, Malgudi. In a post-Independence, post-colonial environment, efforts to recast roads in a native mould, specifically names, a populist obsession that continues to this very day and minute, reach Malgudi with Sir Frederick Lawley’s statue being removed intact from Lawley Road before the renaming of the thoroughfare. After the statue has been lifted off its footings, fresh information about Lawley’s immense contribution to Malgudi’s growth surfaces, causing a change of heart. The mood now is: Lawley Road should continue as Lawley Road and the British official’s life-size statue live on in Malgudi. 

Superimpose that idea upon the abandoned Ottiyambakkam quarry, where a carpet of green woven with water hyacinth spreads across the waters. 

Water hyacinth, an antagonist in water sources everywhere, plays a do-gooder role in the Ottiyambakkam quarry alone.

Saplings planted on the road running along the Ottiyambakkam quarry. | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK

Here is how the water hyacinth got into this new role. 

Of the abandoned quarries in and around Chennai, the one in Ottiyambakkam is probably the most diminutive, and decidedly the most dangerous. A magnet for adventure seekers, the quarry has witnessed many revellers dash their heads against the jutting crags hidden waters while diving in for a swim. Accessible via what is called Mount Street, this quarry was a source of headache for the local Ottiyambakkam panchayat, its many nameboards yelling at these adventure seekers to stay off these waters, but the harsh warning was being received with leaden ears.