Picturesque Puzhal Lake

Seated in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, this lake is situated in the area of Red Hills of Chennai. This is also the reason, why Puzhal Lake is also sometimes, referred to as the Red Hills Lake. This is one of the waterbodies that is fed by the Chembarambakkam Lake, apart from the Adyar River and the Porur lake. It has a capacity to hold water up to, a quantity of 3300 million cubic feet.

History-

Constructed during the year of 1876, under the British rule, in the town of Puzhal, it originally served as a small tank, holding a capacity of 500 million cubic feet. Apart from this, two additional weirs (low dams) were built, which functioned as surplus ones, to release excess water from the lake. In the year of 1997, it’s size was increased to cater to the people of Chennai, for drinking water purposes, apart from storing water of the Krishna river, that flowed from Andhra Pradesh through Poondi reservoir and Sholavaram tank.

Jones Tower-

This tower was built in the year of 1881 and is the main attraction of the lake. It was initially built to measure the water levels and the deepness of the lake. The bund roads of the tower is used for several recreational activities like walking and jogging and a perfect spot for spending time with your family, serving as a picturesque view.

2015 Floods-

According to statistics, the lake had a storage capacity of 2,228 million cubic feet out of it’s original capacity of 3300 million cubic feet. Compared to the other reservoirs, Puzhal had only 67.5% of the total capacity. The Area of Puzhal recorded the highest rainfall that flowed overnight, in the history. The lake was recorded with a water inflow of 9,607 cubic feet and an outflow of 5,470 cubic feet, which was the highest inflow and outflow of reservoir’s history.

Puzhal Lake today-

Up until the end of 2019, the city was facing heavy water shortage, where the pipeline water supply was cut down by almost 40%. The Groundwater was fed by the lake apart from many other waterbodies. The heavy monsoon accompanied with the Nivar cyclone in December 2020, filled up the lakes with ample rain water. The Burevi cyclone that came after the former, was converted into a depression and caused a steady and a continuous rainfall in different parts of Chennai. The lake started filling up too fast, and almost more than 2,000 cubic feet of water was discharged from the river. As mentioned previously, it is still considered to be a perfect tourist spot for a number of recreational activities. if you’re looking for a place where you can spend a day of your Tamil Nadu holidays amidst nature then the Puzhal Lake is the best fit.