Acres of agricultural land in Ekanapuram village have been inundated shortly after spells of heavy rain brought by the North-East monsoon in the northern and coastal Tamil Nadu.
The state received record rainfall from Cyclone Fengal which made landfall on November 30 and from the recent low pressure in the Bay of Bengal.
The rain brought several parts of the state to its knees, disrupting daily routine and causing huge damage to properties and lives. Ekanapuram, a village in the northern part of Tamil Nadu is one among the 20 villages to be notified for the development of the ambitious Chennai Greenfield Airport project at Parandur, also experienced severe flooding.
Visuals taken by the villagers, immediately after the rains subsided, captured the full extent of flooding in the area.
G Subramaniam, Secretary of the Villagers Against Parandur Airport Movement, told TNIE that the flooded fields are proof enough to argue against the viability of airport construction in the region.
It is worth noting that the existing Chennai airport in Meenambakkam was rendered inoperable for significant stretches of time due to flooding. The airport was shut down for over 16 hours due to flooding from Cyclone Fengal; flights were also delayed or diverted due to heavy rains last week.
A representative from Poovulagin Nanbargal told TNIE that concretising wetlands and water bodies will only exacerbate the current situation, causing flooding in less vulnerable regions at lower elevations. For instance, developing an airport and other amenities necessary to support operations in the Parandur region will lead to flooding in surrounding areas like Avadi and Ambattur located on the Cooum floodplains.
As the North-East monsoon comes to an end, we are once again reminded that water washes past the man-made facade and finds its way to where it once was. All major reservoirs in the Chennai Metropolitan Area have reached full capacity and so have most other smaller bodies of water.
Although the impact of airport development on water drainage is identified in the Terms of Reference, neither TIDCO nor the government have shared details of mitigation plans. Villagers and environmental activists are apprehensive of the ambiguity surrounding development plans.
The airport project
The Parandur airport, which is set to be the second airport in Chennai, will be built upon 1963.17 hectares of fertile irrigated lands (1031.21 ha of wet agricultural land, 355.22 ha of dry agricultural land, and 576.74 ha of water bodies), 173 ha of government land and 36.56 ha of developed land.
Ekanapuram is among the larger villages to be affected by the airport project. Villagers fear that their village will be completely destroyed if the airport project progresses as planned. According to the current airport plan, two runways are set to be built upon the village and the neighbouring water bodies.
