It is the boom-boom of rock blasting that the residents of PBEL city and surrounding areas listen to day in and day out as realtors are busy erasing another millennia-old rock formations in the forecourt of Peeranshah Vali Dargah. The dargah is located off the highway that leads to Chevella just after Shadan Hospital. While plush apartment blocks have come up around the once unearthly landscape of the area, some even on the lake bed of Peeranshah Cheruvu, the rock formation is the newest target for realtors.
“There is no respite. Though police officials keep coming and going, the blasting happens right through day and night. Sometimes, there is a break for a few days, but it resumes again,” says Syed Nawab Hussain, the khadim of the dargah. At stake are rock formations that date back 2,500 million years or the time when the earth was taking its current shape.
The destruction to the rock formation was first noticed by Diyanat Ali who posted it on social media. A few NGOs approached the Cyberabad police to stop the blasting. And within a few days, there was a tizzy of activity as policemen rushed to the spot and shooed away the workers from there. But again it’s back to normal with blasts in the late evening or early morning disturbing the calm.
HMDA officials have a simple line that the PIL challenging deletion of Regulation 13 which gave protection to heritage sites and protected rock formations is in the courts, so they cannot speak.
Peeranshah was one among the Sufis who came along with the army of Aurangazeb and stayed back. The date of his demise has been erased on the gravestone, however the annual Urs this year will be celebrated on September 17. Just beyond the small three arched masjid is the grave where people come to offer flowers, prayers and wish fulfilment. Even around the small flat land of the dargah, there are rocks which have been blasted, are being shaped into small squares to be used for construction.
“Though the lake is called Peeranshah Cheruvu, it is not wakf land. The rocks that are being destroyed are also not wakf land and they cannot be patta land either as is being claimed by the people who are going ahead with the blasting. The blasting has destroyed the peaceful ambiance of the dargah which used to be a quiet place only a few years ago,” says a relative of mutavalli of the dargah.
