Hanging Gardens of Chennai - Maadi Poonga

Hanging Gardens, called "Maadi Poonga" in Tamil, is an unknown heritage site in North Chennai.

Maadi Poonga is located in the Royapuram region of North Chennai. The British East India Company, which ruled India once after settling down in Madrasapattinam (the current George Town Area, which was the original Madras/Chennai), constructed a six km long fortification to protect the residents of Madrasapattinam.

In 1768 CE, it was decided that the walls needed to be built to protect the Black Town from potential enemies like the French and Hyder Ali. Paul Benfield was the contractor, and John Call was appointed as the Chief Engineer for this work. The work started in 1769.

The north side wall was more or less over. It was decided that the tax would be levied on the merchants who passed through the walls to fund the construction of the west side wall. Due to opposition from the public, it was not implemented fully. Even the west wall was never completed. However, the Road alongside the western wall was named as Wall Tax Road.

The fortification had 17 bastions and six gates. One of the gates was Elephant Gate. Even today, the locality is famous by that name.

In the 19th century AD, when almost the entire India was under the control of the British, the British government didn't find the necessity for the fortification, so it was brought down. Only a small portion of the fortification was not destroyed, which is seen as Maadi Poonga today.

Unfortunately, this park is mainly used by anti-social elements today.

Happy travelling.

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