Watering Hyderabad’s dried-up dreams

A.V. Ranganath, Commissioner of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), is currently the centre of media attention. His seventh-floor office at Buddha Bhavan, with a view of the Hussainsagar lake, buzzes with activity. Petitions pour in and visitors stream in, from everyday citizens to whistleblowers, politicians, and activists, all vying for an audience with him.

Media contingents add to the frenzy, with cameras scrambling for even the shortest soundbite. National media reporters clamour for a few minutes of his time as logos flash, interviews go live, and pieces-to-camera are given right from his chamber.

Ranganath is not shy of word. The Inspector General-rank officer from Telangana Police engages with every media outlet — even YouTube channels — answering all questions with ease and bantering with journalists. Exuding authority and confidence, he has earned the reputation as Hyderabad’s saviour, just a month after assuming charge as Commissioner of the newly-constituted agency.

“We were getting about 50 to 60 complaints daily till a few days ago; now we are getting about 100,” Ranganath says, responding to a question.

Most complaints revolve around encroachment of lakes and water bodies across the city — precisely the raison d’être of HYDRAA. Demolition of N-Convention, a high-end venue for weddings and events on the western part of the city, owned by actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, catapulted Ranganath to the centre stage of heroic adulation and media attention towards August-end.

Contours of the Thammidi Kunta lake, superimposed on the satellite map by the Irrigation department, clearly show the convention centre occupying a significant portion of the lake’s buffer and the bed.

The venue was in the eye of the storm in 2014 as well, when the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority issued a preliminary notification declaring its Full Tank Level (FTL).

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), formerly the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which came to power after a hard-fought battle for statehood, had deployed earthmovers at N-Convention, ready to tear down its swanky makeshift façade. The move, however, proved to be mere theatrics, and the convention centre was spared.

Two years later, a final FTL notification was issued, but it gave the centre enough room to challenge the same in the High Court, where the case is pending.

Now, eight years since the notification and following a shift in power from BRS to the Congress, the Telangana government constituted HYDRAA through an order and appointed Ranganath as its Commissioner with a clear mandate: protect lakes and government lands in the city defined by the Outer Ring Road (ORR).

Prior to his current appointment, Ranganath had ruffled a few feathers in his role as Commissioner of the Enforcement, Vigilance & Disaster Management wing of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation — he had cleared encroachments around the scenic Lotus Pond in Jubilee Hills, and also secured a piece of government land in Nandagiri Hills from encroachment.

Aggressive approach

HYDRAA truly grabbed the city’s attention when its teams marched into Shivarampally Jagir, the bastion of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, and removed structures encroaching Bam Rukn Ud-Dowlah (Lake Rukn Ud-Dowlah), a heritage tank once used by the Asaf Jahi kings for drinking water.

Full-scale encroachment of the lake had begun in November 2023, when the State was in the thick of Assembly elections. Excavators worked round the clock to fill and level the dry portions of the seasonal lake. The violation continued unchecked, despite numerous media reports and complaints to authorities. Soon, five-storey buildings sprang up on the lake’s FTL, severely hampering its capacity.

On August 10, the city watched in shock as 45 structures in the lake’s FTL and buffer zone, including buildings owned by Bahadurpura legislator Mohammed Mubeen and MLC Mirza Rahmat Baig, fell like a house of cards under HYDRAA’s watch.

Just eight days later, HYDRAA struck again, this time targeting ‘illegal’ structures within the FTL and buffer of Osmansagar drinking water reservoir. A total of 24 buildings in Khanapur and Chilukur were razed, including properties owned by the brother of Congress leader and former Union Minister M.M. Pallam Raju, along with other high-profile names.

The demolitions stirred excitement, with speculations swirling that HYDRAA’s next target would be a farmhouse in Janwada village, allegedly owned by former BRS minister K.T. Rama Rao — a claim he promptly denied. Another conjecture was about the demolition of the Fathima Owaisi Women’s College and the Owaisi School of Excellence, built within the FTL of Surram Cheruvu in Bandlaguda, Chandrayangutta. However, both proved to be nothing more than wishful thinking.

By September 11, HYDRAA has reclaimed close to 112 acres of land, demolishing 262 encroachments, majorly in the lakes. Locations such as Chintal Cheruvu in Gajularamaram, Erla Cheruvu in Chandanagar, Errakunta in Bachupally, Appa Cheruvu in Gaganpahad, Ameenpur Lake, Sunnam Cheruvu in Allapur, and Katwa Lake in Mallampet village of Dundigal mandal have been targeted by HYDRAA so far.

The agency faced backlash from political leaders and owners of the structures demolished, who questioned HYDRAA’s legal standing and called for its dissolution. The headquarters of both GHMC and HYDRAA sit on stormwater drains connected to Hussainsagar, they pointed out, seeking their demolition as well.

Chief Minister A.Revanth Reddy, the architect behind HYDRAA, would have none of it though.

Propelled to power through his bold campaign against the mighty and charismatic BRS president and former chief minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao, Reddy faces the challenge of securing his position within the Congress party, where he is still seen as a newcomer, and fending off the Opposition that frequently dismisses him as inexperienced and unfit. Determined to prove himself, he vested full authority in HYDRAA and allowed Ranganath to tackle encroachments in a city where realty and construction industry are deeply intertwined with the politics of the powerful.

Hyderabad is developed on the banks of Musi River over the past 433 years. Part of the Deccan Plateau, the city’s geography is defined by undulating rocky terrain, dotted with hillocks and seasonal streams meandering towards the river.

Iconic lakes choked by urbanisation

The Qutb Shahi and Asaf Jahi rulers, who successively governed the region, understood that damming the streams was the only way to ensure reliable irrigation and drinking water. Thus emerged the iconic lakes of the city such as Hussainsagar, Mir Alam Tank, Saroornagar Tank, and Durgam Cheruvu, among others. After the devastating floods of 1908, the twin tanks of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar were constructed as flood control reservoirs. Another iconic feature of Telangana’s lakes is the canal network connecting the water bodies, which helps in the evacuation and storage of surplus flow.

“Not even one lake is naturally formed in Telangana. All are manmade, and have a bund, a weir and most of them a sluice for release of water for agriculture,” an official from the Irrigation department says, unwilling to be quoted.

A large number of lakes were also dug on private lands as storage for irrigation. “Under the Neeru-Meeru programme by the Water Conservation Mission of the year 2000, the department promoted check dams and small ponds for irrigation and ground water recharge. Many farmers willingly parted with four to five acres of land as the State (then undivided Andhra Pradesh) reeled under water crisis,” the official recalls.

Concretisation and flooding

Since 2008-10, real estate has become the primary engine of Hyderabad’s economy, eventually driving the State’s growth. Post the formation of Telangana in 2014, property values soared, fuelled by investments by IT professionals, Non-Resident Indians, and the State government’s lenient policies. Land prices skyrocketed, and lakes gradually lost their relevance in the urban setting. Rampant encroachment of water bodies took place in violation of the Telangana Irrigation Act and the Telangana Water, Trees, and Land Act of 2002. The canal networks were erased by rapid concretisation, turning lakes into cesspools of the city’s sewage.

The non-agricultural role of the water bodies had not occurred to many until devastating floods unleashed their fury upon the city from the new millennium. Climate change brought frequent high-intensity cloudbursts, and with canals obstructed by illegal encroachments, flooding became a regular occurrence.

Lake protection as an environmental ethic has got its official stamp of approval in 2010, when, under pressure from environmental activists and a directive from the High Court, the then A.P. government constituted the lake protection committee (LPC) under the Metropolitan Commissioner. The committee’s mandate was clear: list all lakes within the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), mark their FTLs, and remove encroachments.

The committee issues a preliminary notification for a lake after demarcating its FTL, followed by a final notification after securing the lake through chain-link boundary. However, the LPC’s slow progress is evident. Over the past 13 years, it has issued final notifications for just 229 lakes within its purview. According to its website, 2,340 lakes have been issued preliminary notification, while nearly 3,000 others remain unlisted even for preliminary action, say sources.

A hoary and peculiar stipulation in Telangana’s Irrigation Act allows private patta lands within a lake’s FTL, but restricts their use exclusively to agriculture. Despite this, numerous patta holders have exploited their ownership, transforming these lands into lucrative real estate ventures. Massive real estate projects have come up right in the FTL and buffer zones of numerous lakes, in connivance with those in power and with the backing of civic, irrigation, and revenue officials.

According to a survey undertaken by the Telangana Remote Sensing Applications Centre, following instructions from Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, 38 water bodies within ORR were completely wiped out, while 31 were partially encroached, between 2014 and 2023. Of the total 920 lakes within ORR, 282 stand fully encroached and 209 partially occupied.

Among the structures recently pulled down by HYDRAA were houses built on the lake bed of Katwa Cheruvu in Mallampet, most of which were sold off as villa homes. The new homeowners were devastated as HYDRAA drilled into the pillars of their cherished dwellings.

“The builder got permission for 60 houses, but built 200, with support from local politicians and officials. Irrigation authorities marked 22 structures within FTL three years ago, yet the builder painted over the markings,” shares a local resident, requesting anonymity.

The builder cleverly let the markings stay on a few houses, and beguiled prospective buyers into believing that the remaining were dispute-free.

“Ignorance of law is no excuse,” Ranganath responds firmly when asked about the plight of unsuspecting buyers. While cases were registered against the builders, it was the buyers who bore the brunt, losing nearly ₹2 crore per house.

The LPC under HMDA is tasked with raising public awareness about lake conservation. However, beyond displaying FTL and cadastral maps of lakes on its website, the authority has done precious little to caution the public about the risks of buying property in lake environs.

In contrast, HYDRAA’s demolition drives have done more to raise awareness in just a month than HMDA or LPC managed in 13 years. This is evident from the number of frantic enquiries by homeowners worried about whether their property falls within a lake’s boundary.

Long road ahead

As criticism mounts over demolitions being carried out without notices being served, Ranganath cites the GHMC Act, which empowers the commissioner to remove structures from roads and water bodies without issuing notices. HYDRAA does not have the power to issue notices as yet, and only acts on those issued by other empowered agencies, he clarifies.

Ranganath, however, assures that HYDRAA will not touch permanent residential units that are already occupied, adding that the government needs to take a policy decision for handling such situations. This offered little reprieve to lake dwellers, as the Chief Minister, in his latest speech, appealed to all illegal lake occupants to vacate voluntarily or eventually face forced eviction.

Lubna Sarwath, a veteran lake activist with over 20 years of experience, describes HYDRAA’s operations as a ‘nano step’ toward restoring the city’s lakes. Unless the lake hydrology is restored and sewage is stopped from entering the lakes, and unless the lakes are cleared of all debris, demolitions alone will not bring about any change, she argues. Sarwath also questions lack of criminal action against public representatives who are proven violators, and why a mosque within the FTL of Bam Rukn Ud-Dowlah is left untouched.

On the second day after HYDRAA’s operation, the N-Convention at Thammidi Kunta lake presents a stark scene. Expensive air conditioning units and firefighting equipment lie amid a heap of broken fabrication sheets, while empty plastic bottles are scattered across the lawns — remnants of the events held there the day before demolition.

The air is filled with the hum of an earthmover, which is deployed for removing water hyacinth that has claimed more than half of the lake’s surface.

“A batch of labourers who had worked on the weed two days earlier have fallen sick due to the murky water and mosquitoes. A machine can remove the weed from the edges alone, not from the centre,” says Obul Reddy, the contractor.

Ironically, the N-Convention management provided tea and lunch for the labourers while they worked on the lake.

Reddy has cleared water hyacinth from six lakes in the Serilingampally zone, but the weed has regrown in three of them within two months. “Unless sewage flowing into the lake is arrested, the weed will keep surfacing,” he says.