A Community Cleaning Drive was organised by Siruthuli, a reputed green NGO, PSG Institutions – Coimbatore’s most prominent educational and medical services provider with the support of Coimbatore Corporation, as a part of their Gandhima Nagar Stream Protection Project on Sunday.
The cleaning project began at RTO Ground and ended at GV Residency for a distance of 450 meters. It had the participation of Sri Giri Prasad, MLA Singanallur Constituency; Coimbatore Corporation commissioner, Katta Ravi Teja IAS; Managing Trustee of PSG Institutions, L.Gopalakrishnan; Managing Trustee of Siruthuli,Vanitha Mohan and a strong number of Coimbatoreans and volunteers of Siruthuli.
Gandhima Nagar Stream, originating near the Gandhima Nagar Police Station, is an essential stream that flows past major local landmarks, including Fun Mall, PSG Hospitals, and the bustling Uzhavar Sandhai on Trichy Road, before finally draining into Irugur Lake.
This critical channel has fallen victim to severe environmental degradation, shifting from a natural asset into a mounting ecological crisis.
The ecological health of the Gandhima Nagar Stream is currently in critical condition due to a combination of interconnected human and environmental issues.
For years, the stream has been plagued by continuous sewage inflow and illegal solid waste dumping. This rampant pollution is worsened by the aggressive growth of invasive vegetation and the steady degradation of the stream’s earthen bunds (embankments), which have collectively choked the water channel and restricted its natural flow.
For the surrounding community, this neglect has manifested as a persistent foul odour, poor water quality, a total loss of local ecological value, and a heightened environmental risk to all downstream water bodies.
To combat this environmental crisis, Siruthuli, joined hands with Coimbatore Corporation and PSG Institutions to launch a comprehensive stream protection project, recently.
This collaborative initiative has kicked off a vital pilot project covering a 1.3-kilometer stretch of the waterway.
The intervention relies on a structured, six-step action plan designed to address both the symptoms and the root causes of the stream’s decline.
The revival process begins with intensive cleaning and desilting to remove decades of solid waste, sludge, and accumulated silt, which will drastically improve the stream’s water flow. To ensure these efforts are not undone, security fencing will be erected along the eastern side of the stream near Link Road to prevent future illegal dumping.
The project then leverages nature-based solutions, using targeted plantation strategies that introduce Vetiver grass along the flow line and bund slopes to provide natural erosion control and phytoremediation (using plants to clean up contaminated environments).
Beyond the banks, an afforestation campaign will introduce native trees and shrubs along the top of the bunds to rebuild a healthy local ecosystem.
To tackle the immediate water quality issues and the notorious smell, the team is implementing specialized phyco-remediation technology, which uses algae to naturally purify the water.
At the end, a strict monitoring protocol will regularly track water quality parameters and evaluate neighborhood conditions, securing the long-term sustainability of the project.
