Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Disaster Response Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) commissioner AV Ranganath was on his feet till late midnight on Thursday, August 7, post heavy rains in Hyderabad as HYDRAA officials attempted to clear waterlogging near the Shaikpet flyover between Gachibowli and Mehdipatnam. He supervised the rescue efforts at Osmania Colony near Malkam Cheruvu and attempted to clear traffic in the area.
On Friday morning, August 8, he reviewed the situation on the ground in those areas, in an attempt to understand the causes for the flooding, and to look for ways to prevent it in the near future.
He was informed by officials that due to heavy inflows into Malkam Cheruvu and lesser outflows, the main road and Osmania Colony were left water logged.
The officials also informed the HYDRAA commissioner that heavy water flows coming from the Biodiversity Park and Shaikpet areas, were being obstructed at the Shaikpet flyover, causing flooding on the main road.
Constructing sluices, and steps to divert the water from flooding the main road, into Malkam Cheruvu were the steps suggested by AV Ranganath, which need to be taken up once the rains subside.
The reality of flooding
However, environmentalist Dr Lubna Sarwath, who has been fighting for the restoration of Malkam Cheruvu and Khajaguda Cheruvu for the past 7 years, feels that these steps will not be enough to address the flooding issue.
In 2018, she had filed a case in the National Green Tribunal (NGT), alleging that 5-6 acres of Malkam Cheruvu’s full-tank level (FTL) was encroached.
She alleged that an immersion pond was constructed inside the FTL, in addition to a huge wall with an iron gate, walk-ways and other structures.
“The irony is that Aparna, which dumped debris inside the FTL of Malkam Cheruvu, was given the work for concretisation inside the FTL,” she told Siasat.com.
The map above depicts Durgam Cheruvu (on the top in green colour with X coordinates marked around it) and Malkam Cheruvu (towards the bottom in green). The wide green area between the two lakes is the outflow channel of Durgam Cheruvu which delivers the water to Malkam Cheruvu. A colony, Radhe Nagar, lies in between the two lakes.
Durgam Cheruvu is located at an altitude of 585 metre above sea level, while Malkam Cheruvu is at around a 560 metre altitude, which leaves an inclined slope of around 15 metre, for the water to flow freely between these two lakes.
One can see how the link has been destroyed now with a landfill above Radhe Nagar, where the outflow channel of Durgam Cheruvu barely exists.
The pink line drawn around the Malkam Cheruvu, and the P-numbers are the geo coordinates of the FTL limits of Malkam Cheruvu. The constructions on the north and north eastern part of the lake can be clearly seen. Towards the south are Aparna’s constructions, outside the bund-cum-road.
“The GHMC has itself submitted that 4 acres of Malkam Cheruvu have been encroached. One can understand how much of water can be stored in four acres,” she noted, observing that Aparna has constructed its structures at a higher level, making it difficult for the water to flow downstream.
“Naturally, the water will flow back towards the road,” she said, alleging that a large portion of land around Durgam Cheruvu has been encroached, which is another reason for the flooding downstream.
Similar issue at Khajaguda Lake
She also recalled that a huge pipeline was laid to divert the water entering Malkam Cheruvu, to the nearby Khajaguda lake, whose FTL has also been encroached.
She explained that a link road was laid inside the FTL of Khajaguda Lake, its retaining walls concretised and dumping of debris done near its historic 300-year-old weir in November 2023, which she termed a ‘state crime.’
She adds that a small pond was constructed inside the lake by Megha Engineering Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL), and interestingly, a no-objection certificate (NOC) for it was issued by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the Irrigation department.
She pointed out that a walkway was constructed inside the FTL of Khajaguda Lake, on which the vehicles of Sunshine Hospital, located adjacent to the lake could be seen parked at any given time.
How the irrigation channel chain works
Explaining the larger issue resulting in the flooding of those areas, she alleged that the entire channel link connecting Durgam Cheruvu, Malkam Cheruvu, and Ibrahim Cheruvu, finally entering the Musi River, has been encroached and destroyed at many places.
For example, officials who appraised the HYDRAA chief were right about flood water from the Biodiversity Park and Shaikpet area ending up at Shaikpet flyover.
It is an open secret that much of the Biodiversity Park has been encroached upon by big realtors in the past 20 years. There is a lake upstream of Malkam Cheruvu in Shaikpet, which has also been encroached.
In the absence of a system to hold rainwater (Biodiversity Park), and due to large-scale encroachment of irrigation channels to carry surplus waters to Malkam Cheruvu and further downstream, this kind of flooding was bound to happen.
“The gradient from the catchment areas to irrigation channels needs to be ensured. They need to redesign the irrigation channels and examine the hydrology,” she opined.
For a start, she suggested removing the encroachment (concrete structures) inside the Malkam Cheruvu, Khajaguda Lake and other water bodies nearby.
On the release of water from Himayat Sagar
On Thursday night, irrigation officials released water from Himayat Sagar into the Musi River. A weird aspect of the water release was the chanting of “Gangamma Thalli ki Jai,” as precious drinking water was being released into the dangerously polluted Musi River.
Lubna stated that the original maps of both Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar reservoirs show large-scale encroachments inside the FTL. Congress MLC Patnam Mahender Reddy’s farmhouse and YSR Farms, are just a couple of examples of the encroachments.
She has also filed a case filed with the National Green Tribunal (NGT), where she alleged that 50 percent of these two reservoirs have been encroached. The case is still pending.
“They demolished encroachments of ORD Sports in the FTL of Osman Sagar, but they didn’t remove the debris and landfill from there. Then what is the point of restoration,” she asked, reiterating her allegation that successive governments have been releasing water from these two reservoirs, only to save the encroachments from flooding, by keeping these reservoirs filled only to 50 percent of their original capacity.
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