Ukkadam Periyakulam

It looked like a festival – children running around helping to move silt to the bunds, college students excitedly jumping out of buses eager to work, Siruthuli umbrellas adding colour to the landscape , Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), police personnel led by the Police Commissioner, the Rapid Action Force team working together in unison, as if performing a mass drill, NCC cadets taking up strategic positions, old and young, saint and soldier and many many more. The entire team from a Tamil daily came in hordes to save water for their city. “Instead of being only observers and reporters who write about events, we unanimously decided to pitch in with volunteer work,” says one of them.

The Coimbatore Corporation, District Administration, Siruthuli, and Vijayalakshmi Charitable Trust joined hands for the desilting initiative at the Big Tank or Periakulam. It belongs to the Noyyal River system, which has 20 anicuts and 24 tanks in Coimbatore District. Periakulam receives surplus water from the Selva Chinthamani tank located upstream. It has a tank bed area of 320 acres and a storage capacity of 70 mcft. This tank used to be brimming with water, but over a period of time heavy siltation, dumping of garbage and unchecked growth of Prosopis Juliflora reduced the water holding capacity by more than one third.

The Vijayalakshmi Charitable Trust deployed 6 Poclains, 11 tipper lorries and 3 bulldozers to desilt the tank, to create 3 islands for planting saplings, and to strengthen the bund. Hundreds of labourers spent two months on the job. Heart swells up in joy to see a clean lake bed and a smooth 5.5 km-long and 30-ft-wide earthen walking track around the newly desilted lake. The rains lashed the city soon after this effort, and the lake started brimming with water all over again. Birds including migratory birds from Siberia started coming back – a sight to behold!