The Red Hills Lake, Chennai, Tamil Nadu India

The Red Hills Lake Recreation Area is on the Yellowpine Ranger District of the Sabine National Forest. This area was built in 1940 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs and engaged thousands of unemployed young men on similar public works projects throughout the nation. Although Red Hills was designed and constructed to meet the recreational needs of earlier generations, the picturesque 19-acre lake and the 17 surrounding acres continue to provide a gentle outdoor experience for today's visitors.

Red Hills Lake is also acknowledged as Pozhal Yeri in Tamil lingo. The lake nestles in the lap of Thiruvallur district and is positioned at Ponneri Taluk in the state of Tamil Nadu. It serves as a rain-fed reservoir to supply the water to the state capital, Chennai. The total capacity of the lake is 3,300 million ft³ (93 million m³).

The lake used to be known for its other purpose and was called as Irrigation Lake. The lake dates back to the British Rule as it was used as a Military Camp. This is the reason for Pozhal Town being considered as Camp. It had also been used as an airport for the water plans. The lake gave a concrete ramp for the landing of the floating crafts and vessels and now only its remnants are left to be seen.

The reservoir was built in 1876. Initially built as a small tank with a capacity of 500 million cubic feet and two masonry weirs, the lake was built by using locally available laterite stones and was used as surplus weirs to release excess water from the water body. Today, these stonework weirs for retaining water have been replaced by two shutters.  There are two masonry weirs in the reservoir. One weir is 178 m long and the other is 220 m long and 15 ft deep. The bund measures 5 m and runs to a distance of 7 km. over the years the weirs have started leaking.