As the heat of the summer gives way to salubrious monsoon, the change in temperature is appreciated not just by humans but also by birds. Earlier, the beginning of monsoon would bring droves of birds to the Hussainsagar Lake. Come October and the raucous bird calls and quacks of spotbills, cranes, common coot, purple heron, cormorants and jacanas made way for the shriller, smaller more frenzied calls of the babies. Buffetted by Sanjeeviah Park on one side and the army of washermen and women on the Ranigunj side, the birds had perfect protection to go forth and multiply.
This year, not a single bird can be spotted as the lake is being saved yet again. Soil and rock has been dumped on the fringe of the lake on Ranigunj side for nearly one km with a width of about 60 feet (more than four acres of real estate).
“It is a diversionary structure that will take away untreated water. Most of the earthen work will also be removed once the work is over,” says S. K Gupta of HMDA. But workers on the ground operating heavy machinery have a different story to tell. “The soil is loose under the road, that's why we are being forced to do this,” says the man operating heavy equipment. “There is a pipeline under the road and that's why we had to do this,” says another man supervising the pit near Buddha Bhavan. Elsewhere in the city, dumpers are busy round the clock near the Taj Banjara Hotel dumping waste into what used to be a lake. Not done by stealth like in the other parts of the lake, this time it is being done as part of a project to save the lake. “We are building a ring pipeline to carry the sewerage water. We are doing underground tunnelling for the pipeline hence we had to dump this mud,” says a HMWS &SB official on the site.
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An RTI application to HMDA by Manatosh Mandal dug out the fact that the lake is in the domain of Irrigation Department. A letter by an official of Taj Banjara to Forum for Better Hyderabad says: “Earthen bunds have been formed as part and parcel of wet land construction. Minimum filling of the water body took place in this regard. Such filling has been carried out under APTDC supervision…Further filling shall not take place.” Ironically, the letter was written in April 2009.
How the Tourism Department is going to supervise the filling up of the lake for wet land construction, is the moot point.
Perhaps that also explains how we are successfully saving our lakes.
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Success in saving a lake always doesn't lead to bliss. A few days back, when it rained 8 cm in the evening the stretch between HiTec MMTS station and Hafeezpet station got flooded, effectively cutting off Kukatpally from HiTec City. Many IT employees had to shack up with their friends and a few of them even moved into nearby hotels for the night instead of taking the long detour through Hafeezpet and Miyapur. The residents of plush apartment blocks that bordered the railway track showed their anger whenever a TV news crew visited them.
Very few folks travelling between Bombay and Begumpet would remember seeing the string of small water bodies from Hafeezpet that flowed into the Mullakathuva cheruvu. Now, most of the water bodies are under apartment blocks. The result is there for people in Kukatpally to experience.