Mambakkam Lake (Water bodies of Chennai - 70)

Drive about 15 km beyond Tambaram towards Mambakkam and Chennai gradually begins to loosen its grip. Buildings become fewer, open land appears more frequently and, close to the forested landscape around Mambakkam, a large sheet of water suddenly comes into view.

This is Mambakkam Lake, one of the water bodies I particularly enjoyed visiting during this series.

Spreading over roughly 200 acres, the lake lies close to the Kayar Reserve Forest. The open setting, especially during the early morning hours, makes this stretch quite attractive. It is not surprising to find bikers stopping here during their morning rides.

But there is something about Mambakkam Lake that I find far more interesting than its scenic appearance.

Is This Only One Part of a Much Larger Lake?

Travel about five kilometres towards Mambakkam village and another sizeable water spread appears.

This second stretch, located much closer to the village settlement, covers approximately 100 acres.

When I first noticed these two water bodies, I wondered whether they were really independent lakes.

Looking at their location, the surrounding terrain and the enormous amount of development that now lies between them, my reading is that these could once have formed parts of a much larger connected water body or water system.

Today, however, highways, main roads, residential layouts and thousands of houses occupy the land between the two stretches.

If my reading of the old landscape is correct, what we are looking at today is not merely a lake that has shrunk around its edges. It is a water body that has been fragmented so extensively that its surviving portions now appear to be separate lakes several kilometres apart.

Unfortunately, this is not difficult to imagine around Chennai.

A Landscape Built Around Water

Mambakkam itself contains more than one tank and water body.

In fact, years ago, I began this Water Bodies of Chennai series with Mambakkam Kulam, a much smaller village tank in this region.

Official maps too show several water bodies scattered across Mambakkam and the surrounding landscape. This was never an area dependent on a single isolated lake. Lakes, tanks, ponds, channels and seasonal watercourses together formed a much wider drainage and storage network.

That network has increasingly had to compete with roads and construction.

There is documented evidence of encroachments affecting water bodies in and around Chennai's southern suburbs. Mambakkam too has figured in legal proceedings concerning occupation of waterbody land.

So, although I have not found an old map that conclusively proves that the two stretches I observed were once one continuous lake, the present landscape raises a question that deserves to be recorded.

What existed here before all these roads and houses arrived?

Mambakkam Is Changing Fast

When I first started exploring this region, Mambakkam still felt like a village somewhere beyond Chennai.

That is changing quickly.

Residential projects, educational institutions and new roads are steadily transforming the landscape. Places that appeared almost rural a few years ago increasingly look like extensions of Chennai's southern suburbs.

This is precisely why I started documenting these water bodies.

Mambakkam Lake is beautiful in the early morning, certainly. But for me, its importance goes beyond the view.

There is the roughly 200-acre water spread near the forest. There is another large stretch of around 100 acres several kilometres away. And between them lies a landscape that has changed almost beyond recognition.

Perhaps one day an old revenue map or archival record will tell us exactly how these waters were connected.

Until then, the surviving lakes themselves are evidence that this landscape once belonged to water far more than it does today.

This is the 70th water body in my Chennai series.

Seventy visits later, the reason for starting the series feels more relevant than ever.

Happy travelling.

Note on the Water Bodies of Chennai Series

Reports on Chennai's changing landscape have repeatedly recorded the disappearance and shrinking of its lakes, tanks and wetlands. Estimates commonly cited for the wider Chennai region suggest that there were more than 600 water bodies during the 1980s, while only a fraction survived subsequently in anything close to their earlier form.

There are roads in Chennai that still carry names referring to tanks that have disappeared. There are places called Lake View even when very little of the lake remains.

Through this series, I am trying to document the water bodies of Chennai and its suburbs that can still be seen today.

They may not all survive in the same form tomorrow.