Sustainable City: Madras that was, Chennai that is!

 As mentioned in previous posts, August 22nd is observed as Madras Day and in 2026 my city - Madras that was and Chennai that is - celebrates its 387th day based on an approximation of a 22nd July/August 1639 land grant. Though as many city historians including V. Sriram puts it, the references to Madrasapattinam and various locales/villages of our city are many millennia old.

 

Madras Day is something I regularly post about for over 12 years now and I have been privileged to  participate in multiple Madras Heritage events including a sail in Chennai Harbour after a Heritage tour of it conducted by the Royal Madras Yacht Club. In 2018 and 2019 I posted on LinkedIn too about the indomitable Spirit of Chennai and its blue-green spaces. In 2020 during the pandemic and the subsequent Lockdown, Earth Overshoot Day coincided with Madras Day and I posted about it in this blog!

Climate Resilient Chennai 

As mentioned in my post on this blog about Tackling the Monsoon Mayhem, a lot of effort has been put to make Chennai a model Sustainable City. 

This includes among many others mainstreaming the 3-30-300 rule put forth by forestry expert Cecil Konijinendijk in the city - 3 trees in view, 30 percent green cover/canopy and no more than 300 metres from a green space or park! A city with a robust Climate Action Plan and Heat Action Plans with efforts to revitalize mangroves in fishbone canals as well as free up through bio-mining the city's ultimate sponge the Pallikarnai Marsh, which became a landfill - a massive garbage dump yard - instead of the flood guard that it was! Lake and temple pond restoration is another initiative to make Chennai flood-drought and heat resistant and basically climate resilient.

After decades of flood-drought cycles and cyclone rife Northeast Monsoon and being groundwater stressed with regular fears of running out of drinking water for the Greater Chennai's population and overdrawing the water table in order to compensate making the city vulnerable to earthquakes, the decades of mandated rainwater harvesting and more recent storm water and grey water recycling recharging the Buckingham canal at the edge of city limits where the iconic East Coast Road (ECR) and Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR - now the IT Expressway within city limits) converge are all helping with ensuring water security. 

The traditional eri (ஏரி) system of  interconnected lakes and water tanks ensured water security and safety from floods. The encroachment of these by buildings and garbage dumping has been a major reason for the city's increased vulnerabilities to climate change exacerbated extreme weather and natural disasters. 

Award-Winning Sustainable Transport & This City

Though now disrupted by traffic made worse by the Chennai Metro construction, the city has always had ace public transport and connectivity. Digital ticketing, public transport reach and the Metro have secured multiple awards for Chennai in urban mobility (Global Sustainable Urban Mobility Project of the Year 2025 at the GEEF Global Sustainability Summit in New Delhi, November 2025). The metropolitan transport corporation's (MTC) buses, super charged with the EV and AC bus fleet as well as free travel in "white board" buses for women connect citywide. The Chennai Metro and the Local Electric Train (MRTS - "Parakkum Rail") are award-winning sustainable mobility transporting tens of thousands across the length and breath of the city. 

Efforts have been made to make the city more pedestrian friendly as well as disabled friendly though the efforts remain localized to posher areas and tourist hubs. But every step forward is a win when overall the world and India is becoming the domain of the car rather than that of the pedestrian, Supreme Court of India ruling notwithstanding ("Right To Walk" - The SC's Footpath Judgement). 

The Beginnings of Madras

This past year I have been reading and re-reading a unique her-story - A Woman of No Consequence:  Memory, Letters and Resistance in Madras by Kalpana Karunakaran that has given great insights into the city's past and the status of some of its women! 

Chennai Live has been curating some great content about the city's history for a while now all highlighted during Madras Week. 

The Scottish Connection: Artist Katherine Read 

A recent episode of the BBC programme Fake or Fortune (season 14, episode 2) highlighted the international Art World intertwined with Madras and Chennai's past and present. Chennai's very own Ashvita's Ashvin E. Rajagopalan, Art consultant extraordinaire and curator of Mumbai's Piramal Museum of Art was called in to find the origins of a painting by celebrated and pioneering Scottish woman artist Katherine Read's commissions while in Chennai which led to the Nawab of Arcot's family the Madras Court and expatriate community in the city centre - Chepauk Palace, Fort Museum and Katherine Read and others sailing into the Madras beach long before the Madras Harbour was constructed. 

The history lives on just beneath the surface of this cosmopolitan metro with a small town heart that reveals itself in charming anecdotes, art, culture and heritage. 

Namma Chennai

Ancient and modern coexist, multiple ecosystems and ethnicities coexist in this coastal marshland of a city of Ancient Shrines and IT Expressway. Ancient texts refer to "Kovalam, Neerlagandapuram/Thiruneelagandapuram, Mahabalipuram, Kancheepuram and Madarasapattinam" just as much as the many social media weather forecasters of the city call KTCC (Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Chengalpattu).

Events line up to celebrate the heritage and culture of Chennai that is and Madras that was long after August, Madras Week and Madras Day 2026, but for residents, citizens and natives of Namma Chennai - Singara Chennai [Our Chennai - Beautiful Chennai] appreciation and love for the city, its spirit and culture, is forever. Beyond UNESCO recognized Margazhi-Kutchery music season and tourist traps our vibrant city shines in the everyday conveniences for its residents. We are privileged but there is also a lot more to do to make our city sustainable, resident friendly and climate resilient.