Preserve's sprawling canopy makes neighbouring areas go green with envy; Chennai, India

The sprawling canopy makes neighbouring areas go green with envy - Chennai - Cities - The Times of India
5 Jun 2009, 0313 hrs IST, Bhama Devi Ravi, TNN

CHENNAI: The sight of half a dozen jackals drinking water at two in the afternoon is not something you would expect to come across in Chennai. But
that is what D Radhakrishnan has witnessed frequently at the Adyar Theosophical Society.

'With its walkways, trees and plants from all over the world, it gives you a feeling of being in a forest,' says 80-year-old Radhakrishnan, who moved to the area ten years ago. 'This green space is the USP of Adyar. And it makes Adyar the most desirable residential area in Chennai,' said Chitra Nagappan a resident of Adyar. 'I frequently stop to watch the clouds, bees, a tree shedding its leaves or listen to a woodpecker pecking away,' says Radhakrishnan, who along with a group of 20, also visits the forest' as he calls it, every day. The Society is one of the city's few ecological pockets.'You can smell the snakes (one akin to that of boiled potatoes) in the Society when you walk, but they do not disturb you,' says Nagappan, a financial consultant. 'Even as a child I was fascinated by the Society, and I am glad we have been able to reside in the locality. It is less polluted, and we are lucky to get fresh air most of the day,' says Latha Santhanakrishnan, another resident.