Un-gravelling Lakes
Starting with Moovarasampet Quarry Lake, aka Hidden Lake
Two factors deeply interact to tag identity(or identities) to a place — nature and people. Nature provides a set of raw materials and humans harness them to create civilisations. Earth is one such important raw material from nature that molds the culture of a place. Food, housing, accessibility strongly depend on things under and on the ground.
Chennai has geological characteristics of its own; something I paid no attention to till a while back. It is rocky towards the south, sandy near the coast and mostly clayey in the other parts (thus, great for greenery). Southern areas like Tirusulam, Medavakkam and Tambaram have many rocky hills on account of this. Where there are rocks, real estate industry thrives.
Gravel quarries are prominent here. Quarrying has resulted in gigantic dents on the surface and over time, these dents have accumulated water from rain and underground streams. Today, many of these quarries are abandoned and are mesmerising open water quarry lakes. These sites are not frequented by many people, nor promoted as tourist spots (“Who would want to visit a mining site?”, one might ask). And hence, thankfully, these lakes have very clean water. As Chennai’s water crisis continues to deepen, these quarry sites offer a new ray of hope.
Over the next couple of weeks, I will cover such quarry lakes and their naturally beautiful surroundings.
Moovarasampet Quarry Lake
(AKA Thirusulam Hidden Lake)
Aptly named, this lake is situated close to the city’s center, hidden between the Tirusulam hills, below the average surface around.
Location on Google Maps:
When here, one can:
- Trek up to a hill. The hill-top offers a panoramic view of the Tirusulam hills, Airport, and some lakes on one side and the fast-growing concrete jungle on the other. One needs to take a right turn on the Moovarasampet main road onto an unnamed off-road path, next to an unnamed gravel factory (pls ask the locals for the correct right turn) to reach the base point to climb the hill.
- Note: This is a densely inhabited area with narrow off-roads. Hence, the last point of parking a car would be on the Moovarasampet Main Road. Cycles and bikes can be parked on the roadsides near the base point.
- Trek down to one of the lakes. But unfortunately, 2 men drowned in the lake a few days before my visit, resulting in the trail being cordoned off. But the view from down there would have undoubtedly been a sight to behold.
- Here are a few YouTube videos of lucky people at the lake before the drowning incident happened:
There are no eateries in the vicinity of this area. The nearest restaurants are in Nanganallur. I tried my breakfast at a Durga Bhavan near the Nanganallur 100 feet road (link). Fantastic sambar, but they weren’t serving filter coffee when I visited ☹.
