Thursday, September 18, 2014

Daily cleaning

Every day, the tide comes in. And every day, the tide goes out. Each flow of the tide moves a lot of sand and silt. The motion of the sea waters off the Chennai coastline causes the sand to gather along the Marina, having been pulled away from further north. 

Of course it is a problem if the sand blocks up the mouth of the Cooum. There is a permanent effort to keep the sandbars away from the path of the river waters. A couple of dozers and a backhoe-loader-digger are stationed at the northern end of the Marina beach to ensure they carry out the clearing operations in time.

They can't stay there when the tide comes in. Every evening, like some beasts from an industrial age, they go away to roost, moving up above the tide line and then returning to their foraging grounds in the morning!


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