Going green: Shollinganallur school area transforms into urban park in Chennai

CHENNAI: Turning a trash dump around Model School Road into a lovely green space seemed like an impossible goal, but Sholinganallur residents made it happen. They cleared the trash and plugged the illegal sewage discharge into a 15,500 square feet corner of open space reservation land owned by Greater Chennai Corporation.
Akshay Kumar, a student of Class XII who volunteered for the task with NGO Thuvakkam, didn't anticipate that the transformation of the park would come with added benefits."Several birds have created nests on my balcony. We were pleasantly surprised to see them flock around our apartment, thanks to the green space we've helped create," he said.

It all began in 2020 when the former regional deputy commissioner, Alby John Varghese, tied up with NGOs to set up urban green spaces in the city. Krishnakumar Suresh, founder-CEO of Thuvakkam, said only 30 volunteers joined the project when they began. "It took a lot of time for this to become a community initiative. The cost was about 7 lakh. We had to hire a gardener who maintained the shrubs and plants for two years," he said.
Anuradha S, a resident-volunteer, said they would work for four hours every day, tilling the land, and then planting saplings. "Many saplings would die, and we would replace them. It was a continuous process. Now, the space has over 2,500 trees of 25 different species," she said.
Volunteers also held maintenance drives every weekend, while children from the apartment complexes painted the walls of the campus and beautified it.
Akshay said if such a dull place could be transformed by a group of like-minded people, I'm sure if everyone in the city takes ownership of such places in their localities, the city will become more livable and greener. "People should take ownership of the space around them," he said.
Suresh said it's not an easy task due to the time involved and the cost. "The GCC provided not just the land but also water in summer and motor-pumps during the monsoon. Everyone has to work together to achieve a feat like this," he said.
The civic body that took over the land on Wednesday said it plans to convert it into a small public space.