Hyderabad has recorded 44% excess rainfall with the city receiving 164 mm against the norm of 114.2 mm till June this year. But the Malka or Malkham Cheruvu near Dargah area still hasn’t reached the halfway mark, despite blockage of the exit channel and the shrinking of the lake by nearly four acres.
Last year, the lake’s size was reduced due to the construction of a tank for immersion of Ganesh idols. Now, with the laying of a seven-metre wide walking track, the lake has been further reduced in size. “The seven-metre walking track around the periphery of the lake means that the lake has been reduced by about four more acres,” says Lubna Sarwath of Save Our Urban Lakes, who has been campaigning to protect lakes in the city. A 2013 survey map of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) shows the lake area as 51.30 acres.
The shrinkage of the lake is not the only issue. The walking track laid in just 20 days has spelled doom for the historically-significant lake. While Durgam Cheruvu is known as a creation of Qutb Shahi kings, the Malkham Cheuruvu was also built around the same time. It has a masjid near the sluice gate on the southern side as well as an aqueduct. The disused masjid has been walled off while the weir has been covered up with rubble for the walking track. The overflowing water from Durgam Cheruvu would flow into Malkham Cheruvu and then onwards to Manikonda Cheruvu. Now, this naturally contoured lake channels have been blocked off.
A Geological Survey of India study after the floods of 2000 recommended that “De-silting operations for these inland water bodies should be taken up periodically to ensure that they receive the floodwaters. Besides averting the urban floods, these water bodies serve as slow percolators of water to the groundwater system, thereby augmenting the groundwater resource. The tanks, ponds and reservoirs, especially within the urban limits, should be preserved at any cost and saved from encroachments by habitats.”
Recently, on the World Environment Day when a function was held on the lake bund, officials got more than what they bargained for. “You are removing silt and deepening lakes in other parts of Telangana under Mission Kakatiya. Why are you dumping soil and reducing the size of this lake?” was the pointed question posed to A. Gandhi, MLA of Serilingampally, by a fisherman Sudhakar.
Ironically, the lake has not filled up even after a pipeline has been laid around Durgam Cheruvu to dump sewerage from Madhapur area into the lake. “We have stopped the work as people from the nearby colony have secured a stay order. The walking track is not complete as there are two channels for inflow of water and they have not been covered. We have to lay a pipeline for that,” says the contractor executing the work on walking track.
“We have fenced off most of the lake except for a length of 400 metres. We were having difficulties with the contours. But now there is a stay order,” said a technician involved in erecting the chain link fence.
