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A 42.5-km river rising near Chembarambakkam Lake and draining into the Bay of Bengal at Chennai, carrying the surplus of some 200 tanks and much of the city's waste.
The Adyar River, sometimes written Adayar, is one of the three rivers that wind through the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. It originates near Chembarambakkam Lake in Kanchipuram district and flows 42.5 km before reaching the Bay of Bengal at the Adyar Estuary. Along its course it collects the surplus water of about 200 tanks and lakes, along with small streams and the city's rainwater drains, from a combined catchment of 860 square kilometres. Much of Chennai's waste is also discharged into it, which is why the river is a recurring subject of cleaning and restoration efforts.
Type: PhenomenonSource — near Chembarambakkam Lake in Kanchipuram district, Tamil Nadu.
Mouth — the Bay of Bengal, at the Adyar Estuary.
Length — 42.5 km.
Catchment — 860 square kilometres, collecting surplus from about 200 tanks and lakes, small streams and city rainwater drains.
Adyar Creek — a backwater near the mouth formed by sandbars, functioning as a natural channel that carries tidal water back to the sea.
Adyar Estuary — covering around 300 acres and supporting diverse bird species.
Pollution — most of the city's waste is drained into the river, which is the central problem in its management.
Frequency: Urban rivers, Chennai's water bodies and flood management appear in UPSC Prelims geography and Mains GS Paper 1 and 3.
Near Chembarambakkam Lake, Kanchipuram district
Bay of Bengal, at the Adyar Estuary
42.5 km
860 square kilometres
About 200
Around 300 acres
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
The Adyar illustrates a pattern common to urban rivers across India. Its natural function is drainage: it carries the surplus of roughly 200 tanks and lakes across an 860 square kilometre catchment out to the sea, which makes it a critical part of Chennai's flood defence. But because most of the city's waste is discharged into it, that same channel has become a pollution corridor, and encroachment on its banks and floodplain has narrowed the capacity it needs during heavy rain. The two problems compound each other — a river that is treated as a drain is not protected as a watercourse, and a narrowed river floods the settlements built on its own floodplain. The Adyar Estuary, at around 300 acres and supporting diverse birdlife, shows what is at stake ecologically, and it is why cleaning the Adyar recurs as a policy priority in Tamil Nadu.
Adyar River — 42.5 km, flowing through Chennai to the Bay of Bengal.
Rises near Chembarambakkam Lake in Kanchipuram district.
One of Chennai's three rivers, with the Cooum and the Kosasthalaiyar.
Catchment 860 sq km; drains surplus from about 200 tanks and lakes.
Adyar Creek is a backwater formed by sandbars near the mouth.
Adyar Estuary covers around 300 acres and supports diverse bird species.
It originates near Chembarambakkam Lake in Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu and flows 42.5 km to the Bay of Bengal at the Adyar Estuary.
Three rivers wind through the city — the Adyar, the Cooum and the Kosasthalaiyar.
It is a backwater near the river's mouth, formed by sandbars, which acts as a natural channel carrying tidal water back into the sea.
Most of Chennai's waste is drained into it. Because the river also carries surplus water from about 200 tanks and lakes and the city's rainwater drains, it functions in practice as both a drainage channel and a waste channel.