On a Sunday evening in September 1908, it began to drizzle in surrounding areas of the city. Then it began to pour in an area sprawled over 2,227 square kilometres at the foothills of Anantagiri forest in Vikarabad and its surrounding areas. This was the catchment area of the Musi River. It had 17,000 small and medium tanks and had sparse vegetation.
On September 28, 1908, as rain continued, the embankment of these tanks gave way one after the other creating a wall of water estimated at 425,000 cusecs that roared through Hyderabad killing 15,000 people. Today, it is unimaginable to think that the river can be in spate.
The two dams built in early 20th century have effectively killed the river. Within the city, the Hussainsagar, Mir Alam, Afzal Sagar, Jalpalli, Ma-Sehaba Tank, Talab Katta, Saroor Nagar Lake have all but disappeared reducing the flow of rain water into the river.
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The result has been runaway construction activity on the river bed. In Ramdevguda, the area under Army on the river’s western bank has zero construction activity. But on the eastern side,many apartment complexes, warehouses and work sheds have come up. Downstream, dumping construction and building waste in the river is a 24-hour activity as chunks of it are reclaimed and flattened. The island of Imlibun in the Musi is now part of the city with a spiderweb of roads connecting it.
On Monday, a social media user posted photographs on the other side of Imlibun where construction material has been flattened to create parking space. Though everyone, from the MA&UD Minister to GHMC official, was tagged, there has been no response to the post. In the absence of tough laws to deal with encroachers, destruction of Musi’s riverbed is unlikely to stop any time soon.