On January 26, R.V. Hem Sukesh, a Class X student, will be in the limelight at the Republic Day celebrations of Anna Nagar Western Extension Residents Welfare Association. To know what got him there, we have to rewind to December 12 and follow him through the next three days when he showed initiative that belies his age.
On December 12, making use of a time when cyclone Vardah was less intense, Sukesh rushed to Gandhi Park, located at Sector ‘C’ in Anna Nagar Western Extension, to see the extent of the damage to the facility. Since his eighth year, the park has been second home to Sukesh and he was anxious to find out what had become of it. In the evening of that fateful day, he was clearing the park of fallen trees. For the next three days, along with others, he was engaged in restorative work at a few other parks in the locality too. He was also part of efforts to clear fallen trees from roads in Anna Nagar West Extension.
Anna Nagar Western Extension is quite a vast locality, covering four Corporation wards (88, 90, 95 and 99) in Zone 7 (Ambattur) and Zone 8 (Anna Nagar).
In recognition of his selfless act for the neighbourhood, Sukesh will be honoured by the Association on January 26. “During such disasters, even grown-ups will hesitate to venture out, which makes when this boy did quite singular,” says P. Vadivel, secretary, Anna Nagar Western Extension Residents’ Welfare Association. According to Greater Chennai Corporation, Anna Nagar is among areas in Chennai that registered a high number of tree falls.
The houses in Anna Nagar account for a considerable part of the tree cover in the locality. In Anna Nagar Western Extension alone, 24 trees were uprooted.
The Anna Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association raised a team of volunteers, appealing to residents to to wade into the mess left behind by Vardah, clear it and free the roads for traffic.
“We asked residents to clear uprooted trees on key roads,” says Vadivel.
The volunteers were divided into teams, each of which was assigned a few roads. Besides that, teams of resident-volunteers were tasked with removing fallen trees from neighbourhood parks, including Millennium Park, Gandhi Park and Independence Day Park.
Residents are said to have removed 45 trees from these parks.
In fact, Park Road, a key stretch linking neighbourhood to various other areas, was restored on December 13, a day after the cyclone.
By December 14, power supply was restored in the entire neighbourhood.
Published - January 06, 2017 04:38 pm IST
