CSR – THENDRAL LAKE PROJECT, NAMMAKAL, TAMILNADU

The collaborative journey of WakeOurLake and Nansei Research Foundation started in 2017 with the Thendral Lake project in Narasiman Kadu village, a small village nestled in the foothills of Kolli Hills.

The team used GIS to investigate the state of Thendral Lake dating back to ten years along with an extensive field survey to identify where the crisis stemmed from. The analysis revealed the drastic depletion of groundwater resources in the area wherein deep bore wells ranging from 800 to 1000 feet went completely dry, forests had started to lose their green cover, and crop yields in the villages failed. The Thendral Lake, one of the first lakes chosen to be revived, once had a capacity of over 2 Crore Liters without any proper inlet channels but had dried up, causing water scarcity in the nearby villages.

To prevent this lake from being completely dried up, WakeOurLake and Nansei came up with a plan to convey waterthe lake through a kilometreeter-long canal from the adjacent hills. It took considerable effort and time to get permission from the Forest Department and gather support and trust from the local community. Permission from the Forest Department and Collectorate was obtained on the 15th of July 2017. The very next day, Nansei and WakeOurLake, along with the help and support of NSS students and the local community, gathered consider the 1km trench and completed the channel.

Nansei and WakeOurLake were delighted to know that the channel worked effectively as the rains after the construction of the channel brought Thendral Lake back to life for the first time in 40 years. The ecosystem as well as groundwater conditions are improving at an accelerating rate around the lake.