യാത്രകള്‍... കാഴ്ചകള്‍..(പഴവേര്‍ക്കാട് )

It was after a month long hiatus that we hit the road again on Sunday, October 5th, 2008, quite unplanned as usual…thanks to the invite from another ardent follower of “no frills travel”, Mr. Kannan.. Arul, Sridhar, Krishna and me joined Kannan, his family & friends- off to Pulicat .. 

And what is special about Pulicat? google and it will tell u: 

Pulicat Lake (Pazhaverkaadu in Tamil) is the second largest brackish-water lake on the Coromandel Coast, after the Chilka lake in Orissa.  The lake is located 40 km north of Chennai city, lying along the T.N.-A.P coast. The wetland ecosystem, by virtue of the mixing of fresh water with sea water is found to be an ideal habitat for diverse life-forms. The shallow lake is known for its variety of marine birds. Also it is the favorite resting ground for migratory birds..

But is everything hunky-dory about this place?  

This environmentally sensitive and ecologically delicate region is apparently already threatened by a variety of factors -like pollution from industries and thermal power stations, dredging and even natural disasters, - with the impending danger of losing its wetland forests, rare species of flora, fauna. This in turn will affect the life and livelihood of the local community. 

 

Arul, Sridhar, and Krishna together make a deadly combination “injurious to health” - at least for me; they some how manage to pester and irritate me cooking up stories and ballads abt the blunders that I do .. The blame should be partially on ‘yours truly’ since I somehow give them enough and more raw materials to construct these stories … 

Thankfully I had two ‘guardian angels’ this time, Hema and Malati, who I-don’t-really-know- how managed to jell quite well with us, a bunch of wild brats … The result is : the hypothesis of mine which states ‘I would enjoy the trip only if I travel with a group of friends or at least acquaintances’ proved utterly wrong..…