As the first rays of sunlight shimmer on the Ameenpur lake, the photographers and birdwatchers, who have hunkered down a few minutes earlier, hold their breath. The big birds like pelicans land with a noisy splash, while the flamingos do an aerial ballet before the touchdown. Then it’s a pure magic of golden light, wings and water triggering shutter frenzy. But as the summer has intensified shrinking the lake, it now faces a real threat: A nullah with a dangerous cocktail of domestic sewerage and industrial effluents is flooding the lake.
On Sunday morning, as crowds of bird photographers armed with camera lenses that look like bazookas waited to capture that ultimate shot, they could smell something foul. “Why is the water smelling so foul?” a young boy asks his mother as the family tries to shoot a row of flamingos with a 200 mm lens.
“It has been an issue for some time and now it has become worse as the lake has less water as compared to other times of the year. So, it must be smelling especially at the end where the nullah meets the lake,” admits Tejdeep Kaur Menon, IPS who has helmed a lake-clean up effort. “There are multiple authorities involved and I am trying to get the Full Tank Level marked so that the encroachments are stopped and the lake retains its primacy as bird haven,” she says.
Much has improved in the lake environment ever since Tejdeep Kaur Menon got involved with its maintenance. There is no litter on the lakebed or plastic bags floating in the water, the tankers filling up water from bore-wells have disappeared. Even the Ganesh idols which are immersed in the lake were taken out before the colours could pollute the water. While the coots stay near the edge gobbling up shellfish and other small fish, the flamingos plant themselves in the middle of the lake and the large pelicans hover at the other end.
“Right now, the birds are not affected, but there is a smell about the lake which was not there earlier, especially on the other side of the rock formation,” says a birdwatcher, who has been a regular for the past seven years.
“People are puzzled about the flamingos and pelicans in the lake. The habitat of birds is changing so, I think, they are adapting to the change. At a time when most lakes have dried up, there is water in Ameenpur. Even the lake in Narsapur forest has nearly dried up and that’s the reason why the birds are flocking here. I spotted about 70 flamingos and 26 spot-billed pelicans,” says Srikant Bhamidipatti of Birdwatchers’ Society of Andhra Pradesh.
“Residential colonies like HMT Colony, Vani Nagar Colony, Vediri Township, Swarnapuri Colony have come up in the recent years in the catchment area of the tank and all the sewage is directly joining the drain and lake without treatment,” were the findings of Senior Environmental Engineer, who sent the report to Member Secretary of TS Pollution Control Board in July last, but no action has been taken so far.
“I am pursuing protection and clean up of the lake with all my energy, but we are dealing with tangled lines of jurisdiction so it is taking time. But I am sure we will be able to protect this one spot which can be a tourist attraction if all the government agencies get involved earnestly,” says Tejdeep Kaur Menon.
Why Ameenpur?
Amin Khan was a nobleman in the court of Ibrahim Qutb Shah who ruled till 1580. According to Yayati Chartramu, which was commissioned by him to chronicle his life, Amin Khan was a philanthropist who built numerous masjids, agraharas as well as this lake to irrigate the area under his control. Even now, there is a daily market that takes place near his mazaar a little beyond BHEL Colony. Incidentally, Yayati Charitramu is the first work written in Accha Telugu by Ponukanti Telanganarya without any Sanskrit loan words.
There are multiple authorities involved and I am trying to get the full tank level marked so that the encroachments are stopped.
– Tejdeep Kaur Menon
IPS officer
