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.   

 

Our Feathered Friends

 

Spring is celebrated in many forms around the world and across India. The season of rebirth and re-greening is deified in many cultures and mythologies of goddesses of spring and fertility abound.  It dovetails with the regional celebrations of New Year and Harvest in the Indian subcontinent and neighbourhood (Puthandu, Vishu, Chaitra Navratri, Ramadan, Cheti Chand, Pratipada, Jur Sital/Jude Sheetal, Baisakhi, Navreh, Bikoti, Bohag Bihu, Cheiraoba, Poila/Bengali Boishak, Sajibu nongma panba, Pana Sankranti, Naba Barsha, Sarhul, Gudi Padwa, Ugadi as well as Avurudu/Aluth Avurudda/Sinhala New Year & Songkran/Thai New Year or Water festival of Myanmar, Laos & Cambodia). 

 

 March 20, which is the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere is observed as World Sparrow Day as well as the International Day of Happiness. As I tweeted, this is apt as observing sparrows makes me happy.

It's #WorldSparrowDay & #InternationalDayOfHappiness - dovetails beautifully for me coz #Sparrows bring me #Happiness. #ILoveSparrows - apt #2021SparrowDay theme applies everyday 4 me. Revival of sparrow numbers = Hope 4 #LifeOnLand #SDG15 pic.twitter.com/8gyPJ3Q2Ze

— Raakhee Suryaprakash (@10sunshinegal) March 20, 2021

I'll elaborate, bird-watching makes me happy and nothing makes me happier than spotting them in my backyard and garden. My interest in nature and the environment was kindled by feathered visitors who appeared in my childhood campus which was filled with greenery as well as being close to the beach. Sparrows used to regularly fly into our flat and my bedroom and investigate the mirror on my Godrej almirah  (steel cupboard) and the braver ones used to even sit on me as took an afternoon nap. The very best memories. 

The fact that my school campus also abounded with fruit trees teeming with bird life and the occasional monkey gangs added to my early interest in bird life. So yay again for Sishya - the best school in my opinion for so many reasons those days. I always looked forward to meeting my friends and feathered friends there and hated missing even a day of school. 

In my present residence although I am further away from the beach, thanks to a survival of the fittest garden, I get a lot of winged visitors - both birds and bats!!! As writer and birdwatcher Christy Bharath tweeted with the wonderful video compilation of ECR birds - the East Coast Road is not just a scenic route but a birder's paradise.

One of my favorite parts of #Chennai is the East Coast Road - a part of the national highway along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. For 8+ years, I've been driving back and forth on this road every weekend.

Got a min? I'll show you why.#TwitterNatureCommunity #birds #IndiAves pic.twitter.com/lNMANXwuuE

— christy bharath (@contentbirder) April 20, 2021

But it is our feathered friends who brighten the day as the noisily welcome dawn and dusk as well as being extra active during springtime. Here, inside my home, its tailor birds who are more frequent visitors and it is only this past year that a couple of sparrows have entered. They are cherished whether I come across them inside or out. My vision might be poor, but while I may look through/overlook people and inevitably fail to recognize them immediately when coming across them unexpectedly, birds always catch my eye, especially unexpected sightings. 

Be it Ostara/Eostre, the Goddess of Spring (Eastern European/Germanic/Wiccan) and her celebration of rebirth co-opted in Easter as shown in the series American Gods or the return of the Greek/Roman Spring goddess Kore/Presephone, from her time in the underworld with her husband Hades to her mother the Goddess of grain and harvest Demeter (the Webtoon, Lore Olympus retells this beautifully), spring is made glorious by greenery,  gardens, grain and birdsong. 

The book Effin' Birds by Aaron Reynolds and Twitter handle @EffinBirds combines beautiful bird illustrations and pithy profanity both very useful in making one feel better. 

 

Pic: Shikra

Pics: Sunbird nest and sunbird in flight and on a Hibiscus branch.

Pics: Tailor Bird fledglings/chicks - newly hatched in Hibiscus leaf nest.

Pic: Water Hen on my garden wall.

I am spiritually enriched by the presence and appearance of our feathered friends. The extract from Dorothy Francis Gurney's poem God's Garden beautifully rendered as a glass painting pictured at the start of this post resonates with me. And recent research has found that birds give people as much happiness as money in the bank! In these days of high uncertainty and high anxiety due to the devastation of the COVID-19 second wave, simple pleasures are worth their weight in gold.

It is only over the past six years that I recognized and distinguished bird calls especially the laugh-like call of the Kingfisher. The Laughing Kookaburra song which I learnt in junior school suddenly made sense - the laughing jackass after all is a relative from down under. Thanks to the internet and the resources it has made available, school kids and those interested can get to learn a lot more even without first-hand bird encounters. 

Socially distanced bird walks still happen in the city (Check out EFI events #NativesOfOurLakes), but apps such as e-bird make it easier still. Rohan Chakravarthy summarizes it best in his cartoon from last April, during first lockdown, professional bird-watchers feel the pinch but balcony bird-watchers reaped the benefit of the forced slowing down of life that made many of us look up from devices and appreciate the natural world. 

Source: Green Humour, April 4, 2020.

Rohan's book for the Bombay Natural History Society, Bird Business is a delight as are all his cartoons especially those related to bird-watching!

As we are buffeted by the daily realities and perils of the pandemic, let's look to nature and nurture it, so that it may nurture us. As summer approaches and the heat and humidity becomes unbearable thanks to global warming and the climate catastrophe we have precipitated, remember to set out water for our feathered friends. Every little bit helps, for birds and beasts - as the actions of the Water King of Kenya for the past five year's drought season demonstrates. 

Wetlands & Water: World Wetlands Day 2021

 Wetlands sustain life. Wetlands protect life. The day of adoption of Ramsar Convention protecting wetlands, February 2nd, has since been celebrated as " World Wetlands Day." The 2021 theme is Water and Wetlands both vital for survival and both used up as urban centres sprawl to take up what used to be vital wetlands that have sustained life and livelihoods for centuries.

According to the Ramsar Convention, the inclusive definition of Wetlands is as follows:

“…wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres."

This inclusive definition is important in the quest to protect what's left of the wetlands - these teeming biodiversity hotspots because so many cities - metros and capitals have been built on or around what used to be massive wetland systems. 

Dismissed as "swamps," drained of water and later pumped full of concrete our "urban planners" of the past have created water scarce cities that are ironically flood prone as well. As the cooling water, flora and fauna of the marshes were replaced by concrete cities urban heat islands flourished negating the wetland carbon sinks and adding to global warming and the climate emergency.

Last year, the Ramsar-Bonn connect was highlighted just before the pandemic ground the world world to a halt, at the 13th conference of parties to the Bonn Convention of migratory species of wild animals, hosted in India: 10 wetlands across India were designated Ramsar sites or "wetland sites of international importance."

Migratory birds in salt marshes - Rann of Kutch

Hopefully as the powers that be commit to sustainable development, our wetlands will be protected and future cities will all be sustainable cities not just "smart cities." Wetlands and water are inseparable and if we are to tackle the climate crisis we need to put protecting wetlands at the heart of climate action. 

Wetlands are water reservoirs, natural flood prevention, vital carbon sinks as well as sustaining a vast array of biodiversity. Urbanization is an inevitable consequence of modernization but if mankind is to survive our cities shouldn't grow at the cost of wetlands. Another consequence of urbanization and modernization is the growing plastic crisis - plastic waste is as dangerous to the health and survival of wetlands as marine plastic is to oceans. But, there are many efforts underway to remove plastics and landfills from our wetlands as well as efforts to stop plastic from ending up in wetlands in the first place. 

How wetlands manage water: Wisconsisn

Wetlands are the final defense against the intensified flood-drought cycle caused by climate change. Cities running out of water is an ever-recurring crisis across the planet and wetlands, as shown in Kolkata and Kochi, can be vital in ensuring water security and SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) in cities. After the Chennai Floods back in 2015 and the Vardah Cyclone the following year, many people saw first hand how fast the Pallikarnai Marsh absorbed flood waters, yet we continue to encroach upon it with concrete and garbage to expand this already water-starved flood-prone city of Chennai. 

Protecting wetlands is ensuring water security and water security spells human security. Thus it is in the interest of mankind to SAVE THE WETLANDS!

Earth Overshoot Day 2020 is Madras Day 2020: August 22

 

August 22, 2020 is both Madras Day locally and Earth Overshoot Day globally. As the coastal metropolis, Chennai formerly known as Madras celebrates its 381st birthday, the COVID19 pandemic's global lock down and quarantines has pushed the Earth Overshoot Day by 24 days to August 22nd. 

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity has exhausted nature's budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we are maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

 The coronavirus that affects the respiratory system of living things has affected the global transportation infrastructure disrupting supply chains and reducing human consumption. At the start of the pandemic there were many stories of wildlife reclaiming urban spaces and hope of our earth's environment healing and climate stabilizing. The disruption of aviation, shipping and transport sectors had reduced the fossil fuel consumption as well as generally resource intensive products. Local suppliers and locally grown food have addressed the shortfall. 

Yet for all the disruption to our lifestyles and the economy our consumption still outstrips our planet's resources by a whole quarter. So the priority as we envision the post-COVID19 world is to be responsible and sustainable in our consumption and production (SDG12) so that we #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day to the year end. Thus we stop borrowing and living off the resources of future generations: 

https://www.facebook.com/2040Film/videos/2583969951914239

As Chennai celebrates 381 years a future as a Sustainable City, Sustainable Community (SDG11) as well as a Smart City needs to adopted. Chennai's coastal position, expansion eating into vital wetlands, and dependence on ground water we are vulnerable to the buffets of global warming, climate change and climate catastrophe. The flood-drought cycles, unbearable summers in urban heat islands, creeping salinity as well as seawater ingress are vicious byproducts locally of global over-consumption which calls for robust climate action (SDG13). Chennai's green spaces as well as incentives and interests urban and rooftop farming as well as the Tamil Nadu's wind energy harnessing successes are powerful manifestations of sustainable development.   

Hence in the quest to move the date of Earth Overshoot Day should make robust adoption of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by all entities from cities, institutions to nations.

Water and Climate Change: World Water Day 2020

On World Water Day, observed on March 22nd annually, the theme this time #WorldWaterDay20202 explores the connection between #water and #ClimateChange. 

In terms of the sustainable development goals #SDGs, this year's theme for #WWD2020 brings into focus both #SDG6 & #SDG13 - Clean Water and Sanitation as well as #ClimateAction respectively. 

An event I attended in Chennai on March 7, 2020, Eco-fest 2020 showcased experiments and edu-tainment by school students from the to highlight ecology and environmental issues of the city. The street play that they put up in particular linked the need to revive the lifeline of the city the River Adyar by increasing the tree cover in the watershed area of the river as well as restoring and replenishing the many water bodies, in Tamil "eri" as well as ponds and temple tanks that feed the river as well as the water table. As climate change gets to work worsening the weather patterns and natural systems of Chennai as well as India and other climate frontline states, water stress and flood-drought cycles will become the norm that will affect the millions of people living in the vulnerable regions. This climate changed charged has the potential to kill, sicken and impoverish millions if not tackled ASAP. 

The Street Play put up by "சுற்றுச்சூழல்

நாடக சபா" [Environmental Drama Club] in keeping with the tradition of street plays in Tamil Nadu known as Therukuthu (தெருகூத்து ) had a mythological theme with bright costumes and brash monologues by a narrator who regularly interacts with the audience. The narrator/common man in this play stole the show as he jumped and exclaimed along and showcased ecological mythic play. 

 In order to incorporate the environmental theme they linked the myth of the Demon King (Asura) Padhmasura who was granted the boon of burning down anything he puts his hand over by the Lord Shiva (the Divine Destroyer) who was finally destroyed by the Divine Protector Lord Vishnu in the guise of the beautiful nymph Mohini problems of the city's water stress and the polluted Adyar River, the reduction of clean water sources in the river due to an ecologically devastated water shed area with abounding with deforestation and usurping and polluting of water bodies. Characters such as the Earth Goddess (Bhoomi) and the Water God (Varuna) as well as the Forest Goddess/nymph to spread the message of water conservation and afforestation to ensure a water positive Adyar Watershed Area made for a very entertaining and educative evening for us all. 

The photo-booth captured the essence of the city's ecology while the shadow puppetry by the class 6 students of the host school Vidyaniketan was amazing highlighting the source and effects of global warming and climate change. The shadow puppet plays brought out the plight of the Ennore Creek because of the thermal power station in the region as well as the industrialization of that ecologically sensitive area in the north end of the city. The link between coal-powered fossil fuel plants like the one polluting Ennore Creek was also succinctly shown. The impact of climate change and global warming increasing forest fires, floods, droughts and biodiversity loss was also showcased in the short presentation. 

So well done and kudos to the kids, their teachers and the playwrights and craftspersons...all excellent communicators for the cause of our ecology. The young and committed resource persons of the Pitchandikulam Forest Community (PFC) have been adding immense value to the environmental studies component of schools in Chennai. Their outreach and restoration efforts in the city has improved the city's environment and environment education. They have been involved with the creation of Adyar Pooga in the estuary area of the Adyar River as well as in conducting informative Adyar river walks from Chembarrambakkam reservoir to the river mouth on Elliot's Beach emptying water into the Bay of Bengal past revived mangrove islands in the river flowing past Theosophical Society's Adyar HQ. The impact we have on the river and the river's importance to sustaining and safeguarding the city and its biodiversity was made clear in both Adyar Poonga and Adyar River Walk by the informative exchanges with the PFC resource persons. 

 

On World Water Day (March 22nd) and World Forest Day (March 21st) that just preceded it, as we focus on the connections between water and climate change as well as forests and biodiversity in our water stressed, fossil fuel guzzling and carbon emitting cities, efforts like that of PFC to educate and restore goes a long way in healing Mother Nature.  

#Throwback my 2016 article on #WorldWaterDay2020: For #water #resilientcities via @DeccanHerald
On theme #WaterAndClimateChange highlights #SDG6, #SDG11 #SDG13 & the #ClimateSummit #CleanWater #sanitation #sustainablecities #ClimateAction are #HumanRights https://t.co/IHfrqLJVEh

— Raakhee Suryaprakash (@10sunshinegal) March 22, 2020

As we deal with the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on our lives, lifestyles, livelihoods, economy and ecology, the importance of clean water and sanitation in protecting us from outbreaks and leaving forests pristine and untouched and biodiversity protected are all reinforced. Be it water and climate change or forests and biodiversity, it is in our interest, a matter of survival of our species, to live lightly and protect nature and her resources.