A day after cyclone Vardah ripped through Chennai, the exit gate of the IIT- Madras campus, opening towards the Sardar Patel Road, stood shut on Tuesday.
It is because a huge tree that had fallen on the compound wall had caused the wall to break.
Spread across an area of 617.8 acres, the campus is home to lush green trees and is also called the city's green lung. The very severe cyclonic storm left a trail of damage, breaking and uprooting a number of trees and blocking some major roads in the campus.
Speaking to The News Minute, Barani (24), a student from the Mechanical Engineering department, said, "Yesterday (Monday), the trees were continuously falling due to the high-speed wind. Most of us stayed inside the hostel. It was heavily raining as well. We also had a power cut since Monday morning.”
Another student, Akhil, (26) said, "on Monday afternoon, we could not go to the mess for food as most of the roads were blocked with broken big trees. But by Tuesday morning, some of the roads have been cleared.”
According to a faculty from the institute, most of the dogs in the campus tried to take shelter inside the hostels. "I do not know about the deer and other wild animals. The cyclone was horrid and no one stepped out. While we have water service inside the campus, we did not have electricity," she said.
Inside the campus, most of the roads were blocked because of the fallen trees and the bus service inside was stopped for the day.
Kotturpuram, which branches off the Gandhi Mandapam Road, was full of broken trees as well and staff from the corporation was trying to clear the way.
Many city residents expressed their fear of the cyclone. "Last year, it was just the water but this year, the situation was really bad. The compound wall near our house was broken when a tree fell over it. Such was the force of the wind that our water tank was swept away. We were scared for our lives," said Karpagam, 35, who works as a housekeeper.
Here are pictures of the IIT-Madras campus a day after it was hit by the cyclone.
(All photographs by Pheba Mathew)