EnvironmentDMK-AIADMK alternation
Pallikaranai marsh notified as a reserve forest
To stop the shrinking of Chennai's last large freshwater marsh, 317 hectares of Pallikaranai were declared a reserve forest.
The Pallikaranai marsh in southern Chennai once covered about 5,000 hectares but had shrunk to under 600 hectares by 2002 because of urban construction and a growing garbage dump. On 9 April 2007 the state government declared 317 hectares of the marsh a reserve forest and brought it under the Forest Department. It was the first real effort to protect the wetland, which absorbs floodwater for much of south Chennai. The Pallikaranai Marsh Reserve Forest was designated a Ramsar site on 8 April 2022.
