Adyar Creek is a backwater

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

located in Adyar,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

at the mouth of the Adyar River along the

Coromandel Coast The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...

of the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

. The creek begins near the Chetinnad Palace, extending northward into the mainland and taking a complete U-turn near the

Foreshore Estate Foreshore Estate (ta: பட்டினப்பாக்கம்) is a neighbourhood in Chennai, India. It is situated along the southern stretch of the Marina Beach. It is one of the primary sites in the city for the immersion of the Gane ...

before ending near Mandavelipakkam. The creek surrounds the

Quibble Island Quibble Island is a river island in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is formed by the encirclement of the Adyar River and one of its tributaries. It is situated between the neighbourhoods of Mylapore and Adyar. It abuts the sout ...

Eco-restoration

In 2008, a 58-acre Adyar Poonga bordered by Greenways road to the south, Town Planning Scheme road on the northwest, South Canal Bank road in the north east and Santhome Causeway bridge to the east was restored in the first phase and was completed in 2010. The second phase of restoration covers a total area of 300 acres.

Ecology

Following eco-restoration, the faunal diversity in the creek has increased from 273 in 2016–2017 to 331 in 2017–2018. Insect species, including butterflies and dragonflies, has increased from 98 to 155 in the same period. A total of 8 species of

molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil sp ...

, 13 species of

crabs Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

, 155 species of

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

, 10 species of

fishes Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

, 10 species of

amphibians Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...

, 19 species of

reptiles Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizar ...

, 105 species of

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

and 16 species of

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

have been recorded in the eco park area. About 57,000

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

species and 35,000 terrestrial saplings have been planted in the estuary.

References

{{Hydrography of Chennai Geography of Chennai Estuaries of India

Eco-restoration

Ecology

See also

References