Chetpet Lake

Chetpet Lake covers 16 acres just north of Chetpet railway station in Chennai and is the only lake still surviving at the centre of the city. About 9 acres of it are water. The Department of Fisheries took it over for research in 1934 and set up a hydro-biological research station the following decade. Until the 1940s members of an anglers club fished from a small island in the middle, and the Madras Anglers Club formed here in 1962. The water is not saline, and rohu, catla and mrigal live in it.

Encroachment and water hyacinth took a toll, and several restoration schemes followed. In 2013 the state announced an eco park on the shore with a 1.5 km walking and jogging track, a children's play area, angling, boating and an aquarium, and the foundation stone was laid in June 2014. A building shaped like two fish heads joined by a tail was planned for the fisheries offices beside the lake.