Quicksand in Chennai’s Pallikaranai marshland

For years, the Pallikaranai marsh has embodied Chennai’s environmental paradox. One of Tamil Nadu’s most important wetlands, it is also surrounded by apartment complexes, IT parks, arterial roads, and neighbourhoods that have grown steadily over the past five decades. Today, the marsh is at the centre of a debate — whether protecting it requires freezing development across the entire surrounding landscape, or whether science can identify a more nuanced regulatory framework that safeguards the wetland while recognising the rights of people who have legally owned and occupied these lands for decades.