Palayathan Tank (Waterbodies of Chennai - 14)

Wherever there is a temple, big or small, there would be one or more tanks. Interestingly, here I don't find any temple, only a very big tank. The tank is named Palayathan Tank. It is located in a narrow street called Palayathan street in Selaiyur village near Tambaram, the southern outskirts of Chennai.

Who is this Palayathan? Why and when did he construct this tank? Else, was this tank named after him and was made by someone else? No traces of history could be found. But it is amazing to find such a huge tank occupying an area of about 1.25 acres in the middle of a narrow street.

All I could gather was that this was a very old tank. Apparently, some work was carried out, and a park was laid around the tank in 2015. The tank and the park were maintained well for some time. Now, again it's in a very bad state. No one literally bothers. This is a forgotten waterbody with untraceable history.

Happy travelling.

Note: As per a report, there were about 650+ waterbodies in the Chennai region till the 1980s. Today, only a fraction of them exist. And most of those surviving waterbodies hardly have water, and even some of them that have water have been poorly shrunk. In Chennai, there are tank roads without tanks nearby and lake-view roads without lakes. There is a high possibility that even the few waterbodies we have today might vanish soon. I decided to visit the currently surviving waterbodies of Chennai and its suburbs and write about them in my blog as a series.

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