Perungudi Lake

Perungudi Lake is a water body beside Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Chennai's IT corridor. It is among the few protected lakes in the city: a compound wall encloses it, and walkers have pathways along its eastern and southern sides. Once a source of irrigation for surrounding farmland, it still supplies drinking water to a few nearby colonies, helps sustain groundwater, and connects through marshland across Perungudi, Velachery and Pallikaranai to the Pallikaranai wetland.

After years of poor upkeep and encroachment, the lake filled to capacity during the December 2015 cloudburst. Residents then formed PLANET, a forum of some 15 neighbourhood associations, to guard it against pollution, sewage and encroachment. They held a Perungudi Lake Festival on 26 January 2016 and another with arts and cultural programmes in February 2017, and have planted saplings around the shore.