“Encroachments Get Protection, Residents Get Floods – The Velachery Model Of Governance Likely To Repeat This Year Too?”, The Commune, November 05, 2025
“As the northeast monsoon sets in, Velachery residents are preparing for another season of flooding, haunted by memories of the 2023 deluge when water reached neck-deep levels in several neighbourhoods. Many households have begun rebuilding homes at higher elevations, lifting parking spaces and reconstructing ground floors solely for vehicle storage. Residents say they have spent lakhs to raise floors as water had risen up to five feet inside homes last year.
At the heart of the problem lies Velachery Lake, which once served as a 255-acre flood buffer but has now shrunk to just 55 acres. Despite repeated directions from the Madras High Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to survey, demarcate, and remove encroachments, the Water Resources Department (WRD) has taken no substantial action. The department has acknowledged identifying 955 encroachers but claimed that eviction might lead to a law-and-order situation.
A visit to the area shows the lake almost erased from the map, replaced by a sprawl of huts and kutcha houses on both sides of the 100-Feet Road. The Adambakkam end has turned into a narrow canal while the opposite side functions as a small pond. The outfall of the lake is clogged with water hyacinth, and desilting has not yet begun………”
Read full article at thecommunemag.com
