The city of Chennai has an estimated 4.5 percent of its area under green cover.[1] The share of Chennai's greenspace is dominated by the Guindy National Park, with an area of 2.71 sq km, which covers a vast area south of the Adyar River.
The seven zones of the old corporation limits has about 260 public parks, 154 traffic islands and 103 centre median parks, maintained by the parks department of the Corporation of Chennai,[2] many of which suffer poor maintenance. Public parks include 88 notified parks, 73 park sites in extended areas, and more than 100 open spaces that have been earmarked for recreation purposes.[3] The eight zones in the newly added areas of the city have about 265 locations that have been identified for development of new parks.[4] The largest among the parks in the city is the 358-acre Tholkappia Poonga, developed to restore the fragile ecosystem of the Adyar estuary.
Chennai's greenspace is further augmented by a network of open spaces containing forests, prairies, wetlands, canals, streams, and lakes that are set aside as natural areas along the city's periphery.
In pre-Independence days, the ceiling on the number of permanent workers for maintenance of city parks was fixed at 350. This has not been revised till date.[3]
List of parks
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References
- ^ Janardhanan, Arun (9 May 2011). "Massive afforestation drive to begin in Chennai". The Times of India. Retrieved 11-Jun-2011.
- ^ "Parks". Corporation of Chennai. nd. Retrieved 5-Aug-2012.
- ^ a b Frederick, Prince (28 August 2002). "With a dash of glamour...". The Hindu (Chennai: The Hindu). Retrieved 12-May-2013.
- ^ Lopez, Aloysius Xavier (30 March 2012). "More green relief for Chennai soon". The Hindu (Chennai: The Hindu). Retrieved 13-Jul-2012.
External links
Homepage of Corporation of Chennai