Pulicat Lake

Pulicat is a small town situated at a distance of 60 km from Chennai. It houses a Dutch cemetery dating back to the 17th century. The Dutch built a fort here in the year 1609, to ensure a comfortable stay at the Coromandel Coast for a long time. The rapid industrialization and the consequent problems of environmental degradation and loss of employment to thousands of local inhabitants of the Pulicat lake require the intervention of the ecologists, environmentalists and educators for evolving a sustainable community based environmental resource management strategy. The environmentally sensitive and ecologically delicate region is already threatened with the impending danger of losing its wetland forests, rare species of flora, fauna. The livelihood of the local community of fishermen, local tribals and agricultural workers are in danger due to massive unemployment, object poverty and the ultimate displacement from their place of residence.

Landless agricultural workers and unemployed fishermen are the victims of the mega projects implemented and they are in search of alternate earnings Under such circumstances, it is feared that the members of the local community may be forced to turn towards resource extractive and anti-social activities such as illegal sand mining, illicit brewing and indiscriminate exploitation of coastal and environmental resources, to surmount the problem of poverty and to survive. The Pulicat Lake area is known for its natural groves. The rich and varied aquamarine resources available form Pulicat lake were the main source of earning for the local inhabitants In order to help the local community to chalk out a sustainable development project, the "Pulicat Lake Mission" proposes an all encompassing intervention strategy as detailed below to fullfill the mission goals proposed:.