The Resource Survey of SRP Colony 2019

Survey Part 1. Comprises 5 pages and  is an overview of collected data with Graphs and Tables.

Survey Part 2. Comprises 13 pages and depicts graphic SRP Colony street maps, buildings and structures with labels, trees, shrubs, electric and cable poles, electricity and cable junction boxes, transformers etc. 

Part 1 & Part 2 of this PDF document with additional streetwise graphic maps Download

The survey aimed at identifying and consolidating local resources of SRP Colony such as civic infrastructure and biodiversity can be used as a reference guide.

Introduction. The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, under the aegis of British East India Company, started its land survey measurements in 1802. This triangulation method of land surveying and contour mapping had its starting baseline near St. Thomas Mount in Madras and progressed westwards to the Malabar coast of Mysore territory. That was the first set of formal modern survey in Indian history. It had taken seventy long years to survey the entire subcontinent when it was completed in 1871. By then India had moved from the hands of the Company to the British Monarchy. Messrs Lambton, Everest, Waugh and Walker were the stalwarts of this monumental triangulation survey achievement. The purpose of the Survey was to understand Indian geography and ultimately apply the survey knowledge to tax her citizens!

    When the British started surveying the erstwhile Madras, a swathe of farmland or perhaps a marshland lay unbothered far in the northwest of what was then called the Black Town of Madras. British did not realize that two hundred years later that tract of wasteland will be worth a few million pounds. Yes indeed, welcome to the prosperous residential area, nestled between historic Perambur and Kolathur, called Sundara Raja Perumal Colony, fondly referred by the locals as ‘SRP Colony’.

    British had left the place with their reaped harvest of tax bounty. Today under the mercy of our political overlords, our own tax money is now working for us in the form of roads, lighting, water supply, sewage and storm water drain system, hospitals and the like. We have a reasonably comfortable infrastructure in our SRP Colony, supplemented by the facilities in surrounding areas, including Periyar Nagar and Jawahar Nagar. Apart from this civic infrastructure, we are endowed with some natural resources that make our neighborhood a better living place.

What is inside this booklet? Civic and natural resources of the neighborhood is studied on the basis of quasi-scientific yet prudent data collection. Gathered data are presented here in tabular and graphic formats. Civic resources documented include streetwise electric poles, cable poles, electric and telecommunication junction boxes, transformers, public water tanks. Natural resources documented include trees and birds.

Why this survey? The survey is aimed essentially to streamline civic resources of SRP Colony and to help make the Colony’s house-keeping easier. The General Secretary of SRP Colony Nala Sangam, Mr. T. S. Raghavan and I casually discussed about developing a resource chart for the street lamp poles, so as to easily locate electricity issues and identify faulty street lamps in order to replace them. It should be noted that the entire SRP Colony now basks under the newly installed LED fitting in lieu of bulky, dull and hazardous mercury lights.  While we were discussing, I offered to chart as well the trees and shrubs that line the streets of SRP Colony. Thus resulted our own ‘Great Resource Survey of SRP Colony’. One-street-at-a-time approach of intermittent data collection spanned about four months from September 3, 2018 to January 5, 2019.

By who? It was a team work under my guidance that involved school-going students Dhurai AN, Narayanan AN who pitched in whenever they could and their mother Anandhi N. Collected data were randomly re-verified, curated  and transformed into easily readable graphic format.

Biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of plants and animals in a particular habitat. Presence of diverse organisms is desirable and reflects the health of any given region. Though a concrete jungle, SRP Colony has diverse flora and fauna. A rich variety of native and introduced plants, and large variety of animals that rely on the shrubs and trees in the locality, are a testimony to SRP Colony’s biodiversity.

Trees. Trees that are in public properties are included in the study. Privately owned trees and shrubs if and when included will make this study complete and will give a much more accurate description of SRP Colony’s biodiversity. Identification of trees is based on my own experience as well as plant data available on the internet. I took certain liberties in order to keep the presentation as simple as possible. For example, Vaagai, Theekondrai, Sarakkondrai, Mayilkondrai and other Kondrai species are grouped together (as they belong to the same biological family called Fabaceae). Care was taken in assigning trees (varieties and their number) to their respective plots denoted by their specific numbers. This ensures an easy understanding of spatial distribution of trees with reference to plots in a street. Numbers and kinds of trees in the streets and public places in SRP Colony are represented in Tables 1 and 2 & Figures 1 and 2. 

Birds. A variety of birds reside in our neighborhood and it is observed that many birds visit the area momentarily, perhaps in search of food, and fly away. The rectangular pond at the western periphery of SRP Colony as well attracts and serves as destination for certain seasonal birds. Since 2014 there have been a few informal bird surveys undertaken in the neighborhood and its surroundings. At least 23 species of birds live or visit our own SRP backyard! All observed birds in our area are Identified and are shown in Table 3.

*All bird observations are submitted to ebird.org project of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, US.

Hiccups in plot numbering. As a caveat, there are a few pockets around the perimeter of SRP Colony, that do not follow sequential plot numbering convention as apposed to the rest of the Colony. In a few other plots, numbers were not identifiable and those were assigned Roman numerals just for the sake of data presentation. A handful of plots were found to be without any built physical structure (empty plots), a few structures seemed abandoned and such plots are identified in the survey maps.

Is the survey final? No. The reader should be aware of the fact that this project is a work in progress. Therefore the document has to be treated as a ‘draft edition’ that requires periodic updates.     

Can the survey be improved? Yes, it can be improved by,

1. Periodic update of current survey, like once in 2-3 years.

2. Connecting street light poles to their specific TANGEDCO number. 

3. Inclusion of  biodiversity in private properties.  

What do we gain from this? The booklet provides for anyone interested, information on available infrastructure of the neighborhood. It may help SRP Colony Nala Sangam to chart strategies, make development plans and work with local government officials to impress upon them the  requirements for infrastructure augmentation.

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Notes

Plants: Presence of at least 30 tree and shrub species in accessible public properties in SRP Colony have been identified. Private land properties in general and empty plots in particular, might harbor a few more tree varieties that are not listed above. There are some 360 counted trees in the Colony. Sri Raja Rajeswari temple, 9th and 10th streets need a revisit as they have many unidentified trees. Small wild and domesticated (garden) plants are not part of the study. 

Birds*: Presence of some 23 species of birds have been conclusively identified in the area. Keen and dedicated  observations could bring out additional species. Good number of trees attract birds and other organisms. Asian Koel (cuckoo) is a common sight in the Colony. Their numerical density directly correlates with that of crow. There are two species of crows in the area, house crow and jungle crow. They easily proliferate as they are good scavengers of discarded food and are also fed well by humans for cultural reasons. Sheer number of crows play a role in the survival of sloppy koels, which are brood parasites. Brood parasites are organisms that rely on other birds to raise their young ones. Since koels lack nest building skills, they lay their eggs in crow’s brood. Crow, not just incubate and hatch these along with their own eggs but also raise koel hatchlings into adulthood! Therefore, more crows in SRP Colony means more koels too!

Civic: Entry of many unregulated private cable based entertainment and communication services poses challenges. Reckless crisscrossing of their cables is a common sight in the neighborhood. Cables dangling overhead precariously, at times too low, could harm pedestrians and motorists. Improperly laid overhead cables could be hindrance to fire fighters to reach in the case of emergency.

Duraiswamy Navaneetham PhD

durainava@gmail.com 

October 7, 2019

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Part 1 & Part 2 of this PDF document Download

This entire web page is best viewed as PDF. It has additional 13 pages of streetwise tables and graphics.

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This page was created on November 1, 2020