Perungudi Lake () is a water body located near

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

's IT corridor,

Rajiv Gandhi Salai State Highway 49A (SH-49A), also known as Rajiv Gandhi Salai and Rajiv Gandhi IT Expressway or just IT Expressway, is a major road connecting Chennai, Tamil Nadu state with Mahabalipuram in Chengalpattu district, in the same state. It is 45&nb ...

, India. It is one of the few protected lakes of Chennai, fully fenced with compound wall and pathways laid on its east and south side for walkers. In the past, the lake was a major source of water for irrigation to its neighborhood agricultural lands. Presently it is still catering to the drinking water needs of few colonies surrounding the lake, and holds the ground water levels. Excess rain later flows into the lake through storm water channels from the nearby residential areas. Perungudi lake is connected with

Pallikaranai wetland Pallikaranai Marsh is a freshwater marsh in the city of Chennai, India. It is situated adjacent to the Bay of Bengal, about south of the city centre, and has a geographical area of . Pallikaranai marshland is the only surviving wetland, wetlan ...

through marsh lands spreading across Perungudi, Velachery, and Pallikaranai.

2015 flooding and reexamination

This lake reached its full capacity during the cloudburst that hit Chennai in December 2015. Prior to that not even 25% of water was retained by the lake due to poor maintenance of water inlets and encroachments. The beauty of the lake caught the attention of its nearby residents and motivated them to start a people's forum to protect the lake from pollution, abuse, encroachments, sewage water letdown, defecation, and

water theft Water theft is illegal tapping of water supply systems. Together with losses from water leaks in the piping, water theft is one of the major factors contributing to non-revenue water. Thames Water estimated losses by theft to amount to 2 to order ...

. From sprucing up the lake to hold a Lake Festival (PLF 2016- Perungudi Lake Festival 2016) on 26 January of 2016, like-minded individuals from nearby 15 residential association joined hands together for the cause of protecting the lake as the Perungudi Lake Area Neighbourhood Environment Transformation (PLANET). PLANET is a registered body of all resident associations around Perungudi lake. PLANET celebrated PLF 2017 in the month of February 2017 with several art and cultural programs with a perspective of promoting waterbodies. PLANET planted several tree saplings around the lake and regularly monitoring its growth. TN PWD supports the activities by the PLANET.

References

{{reflist Lakes of Chennai