Nirupama Viswanathan By Express News Service An entire lake, originally spanning around 2.5 acres, has gone missing in the village of Adayalampattu near Vanagaram, an upcoming residential locality in the Western suburbs of Chennai. In its place now is a neatly fenced parking lot for mini trucks and private buses. The lake, which was connected to the Ayanambakkam lake and the Maduravoyal lake, had served as the primary source of water to the village. Until a decade ago, the village, known for copious groundwater, had a large area of cultivated land including mango groves. However, when Express visited the spot, rows of mini trucks and buses were parked behind a seven-foot gated compound wall on the land where the lake once was. The parking lot also had a small building with five rooms. According to documents accessed by Express, the survey number 52/1 where the parking lot stands, has been marked as a tank, spanning 46.64 grounds. The documents also showed that the survey number 52/2 has been classified as ‘Natham’ (poramboke). Arockiasekar D, president of the Millenium town plot and flat owners association of Adayalampattu, pegs the current value of the encroached land at around Rs 50 crores. “The encroachers somehow got a patta for 52/2 which is a small piece of land and expanded occupancy to 52/1 which is the waterbody. Now, all of it is under their control,” he said. “The encroachment did not happen overnight. Over a period of ten years, the encroachment was expanded bit by bit so it didn’t particularly catch anyone’s attention. Now, we realise that the entire lake is gone,” he added. Adayalampattu houses 1,800 families today. While they have been saved from a water crisis all these years due to the availability of groundwater, residents said they were not sure how long it will last. “We had three borewells in our apartment. Water would be available at around 30 feet. This year, all three borewells ran dry. As a village where the population only keeps increasing, we have to reclaim our waterbodies to be able to sustain,” said a resident of VNR Milford apartments in the village, one of the apartments recently constructed in the area. When contacted, a local revenue official admitted that the waterbody has been encroached. “Action will be taken soon,” said the official.

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