Hyderabad: An under-construction three-storied commercial complex in a depleted lake at Khanapur on Hyderabad’s outskirts came down crashing like a pack of cards as workers employed by a newly constituted government agency to remove encroachments in lake beds got to business in the early hours of Sunday, August 18.
Hundreds of police personnel stood guard as the workers with long-arm heavy excavators pulled down nearly 10 illegal structures within the expanse of the full tank level (FTL) or buffer zones of the lakes at Khanapur and nearby Gandipet and Shankerpally on a single day.
They carried out the operation till the buildings were fully razed to the ground amidst strong resistance from owners and builders who kept arguing forcefully that they had all the requisite permissions from the government. They were all rounded up and shifted to a police station, upon which the work was continued smoothly for four to five hours.
A specialised agency to deal with encroachments on lakes
The Telangana government’s new agency Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) has been set up to function in the Telangana Core Urban Region comprising Hyderabad and areas extending up to the Outer Ring Road (ORR), which has become the natural boundary of the city.
Its main purpose is to protect against encroachments assets of local bodies and government such as lakes, parks, layout open spaces, playgrounds, stormwater drains, land parcels, roads, carriageways and footpaths.
The government by an executive order on July 19 established HYDRAA as a single unified agency for disaster management and to check unauthorised constructions in all urban and rural local bodies in four districts up to ORR.
A view of three buildings that were demolished by HYDRAA at Earla tank near Chandanagar. Photo: Special arrangement.
A senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the rank of Inspector General A.V. Ranganath has been appointed as its first Commissioner. He was earlier Commissioner of Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management at Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
The skeletal team of Ranganath with personnel outsourced from various government departments got down to business to clear encroachments in lakes on August 10 when it cracked down on illegal structures in the heritage lake of Bum-Rukn-Ud-Dowla in Shastripuram near Rajendranagar. For a long time, heritage conservationists and environmentalists had protested the construction of buildings on 10 acres of lake bed and buffer zone of the 18th-century lake.
Then, HYDRAA demolished 52 illegal structures in the FTL of lakes at Devendernagar and Gajularamaram near Qutbullapur. Buildings in the FTL in Errakunta Lake at Bachupally in Nizampet Municipal Corporation were also demolished. The officials of GHMC, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority and town planning were alleged to have given permissions by altering the boundaries of lakes and survey numbers at Errakunta and Early tank at Chandannagar. The irrigation department had not issued the no-objection certificate.
Moving on to a five-day operation from Sunday, HYDRAA focussed its attention on nearly 40 buildings in and around Gandipet across river Musi which was the main drinking water source of Hyderabad till two decades ago.
The agency met with stiff opposition from Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender who shifted loyalty from Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) to the Congress a few months ago during another operation in his constituency. The legislator threatened to move a privilege motion against Ranganath in the Assembly for pulling down a wall constructed by his supporters adjacent to a park in the posh Nandagiri Hills. The wall was constructed to divide the land occupied by hut dwellers from the public park behind the residence of film star Balakrishna.
Nagender protested that officers like Ranganath come and go but he was a ‘local’ who had to protect the interests of people in his constituency as a responsible public representative. He said he would take the issue to the notice of chief minister A. Revanth Reddy.
The government, however, has given a free hand to Ranganath who was known to be a strict officer to deal firmly with unauthorised constructions, mainly water bodies, under the building rules of the Municipalities Act.
Ranganath has warned that the demolitions were a continuous process which will not stop, no matter the political pressure mounted on him. He said he was aware that he would face pressure but he would not budge. In this context, he also said that the government was promoting real estate but not giving permission for residential buildings around water bodies or encroachments in depleted lakes.
The HYDRAA launched the drive with a budget of Rs 200 crore, mainly to procure machinery and deploy workers. Sources said it will soon have a police station to speed up cases by prosecuting erring building owners and officials.
A study by the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) revealed that the extent of lakes in Hyderabad was reduced by 61% from 1979 to 2024.
Known as the city of lakes decades ago, Hyderabad now has only 185 lakes as per the data of GHMC and Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
The lakes were traced in satellite images and Google maps but not found on the ground. The same was the case with stormwater drains and parks. The choking of drains with illegal constructions had denied outlets to rainwater, causing frequent flooding of residential localities and roads in peak monsoon.
At a time when the urban population growth of Telangana was 3.2% per annum which was higher than the national average, Hyderabad had become vulnerable to flooding in slums and low-lying areas where most of the migrant population resided. They set up their dwellings along drains while those who could afford to build permanent houses occupied lake beds.
The building and land regularisation schemes introduced by the previous BRS government added to the chaotic housing in Hyderabad.
Deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka while explaining the need for a dedicated agency to meet the threat told the Assembly last month that the idea was to plan, organise, coordinate and implement measures for preparedness and prevention of urban disasters.
Ranganath has said that the HYDRAA will prepare a compendium on lake encroachments keeping in view judgements by the Supreme Court, high court and National Green Tribunal.
It will not intervene with government lands locked in litigation over management rights. It will evolve into a new force like the elite anti-Naxalite Greyhounds, Octopus which deals with terrorist activity, the anti-Narcotics Bureau and the Special Intelligence Bureau.
Pending a final decision by the Council of Ministers, the HYDRAA is proposed to get a force of 3,000 personnel working in 70 special teams under officers of the rank of Superintendent of Police and headed by Ranganath.
The HYDRAA has an estimated presence of 400 lakes within ORR. It planned to take the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation, the NRSC and environmentalists to fix the FTL of depleted lakes and buffer zones for specified extent of lakes. There were primary notifications of FTL on a majority of the lakes but their coordinates were missing. The HYDRAA will develop an app on the borders of FTL to identify FTL zones and buffer zones. The entire area will be fenced.
A former MLA of Andhra Pradesh Katasani Rambhoopal Reddy had got his name inscribed on the stones abutting the picturesque Ameenpur Lake near Patancheru to claim ownership of a portion of the lake which was considered a pioneer in the promotion of biodiversity in the area.
A lake activist Lubna Sarwath warned that mere demolition of unauthorised constructions in lake beds did not amount to their restoration. The construction debris must be removed and the land levelled up to a distance to ensure the water holding capacity of the lake. The bunds, sluice gates and inflow/outflow channels must be constructed.
A climate crisis commission must be set up for the proper restoration of tanks.
Another lake activist Thakur Raj Kumar Singh welcomed the demolitions but said they should have been taken up after the rehabilitation of building dwellers.
He recalled that a committee appointed by the government had detected 12,000 unauthorised constructions in the catchment of Gandipet and Osmansagar reservoirs. The government had issued an order prohibiting constructions up to 10 kilometres from the reservoirs and spread over 84 villages in five mandals.
