Taj Banjara lake in Hyderabad.
Like Bengaluru, Hyderabad was known as a city of lakes from the days of the Nizams and the Qutb Shahis. But in the last few decades, Hyderabad's lakes have been encroached by big builders, who have destroyed the impressive man-made water storage system that helped keep drought and flood at bay. And now, the government's beautification of the lakes would mean building parks on it.
While the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority or HMDA confirms that the city has around 3,000 lakes, city-based activists say this is just a patchy figure put together by authorities by combing the lists from the different wards.
Activists have expressed their anger over the recent dumping of mud in the Banjara Lake to build a walking track. Jasveen Jairath, founding convenor of SOUL (Save Our Urban Lakes), told NDTV: "I reckon there is a level of illiteracy among the public and authorities about man-made lakes. Even the judiciary is lackadaisical about it. Why don't they punish polluters and those damaging the lakes during hearings?"
"The FTL (Full Tank Level) is not the boundary of the lake, and I hope the judiciary is paying attention to this," she added. Full Tank Level is the height of the weir to the bottom of the lake, corresponding to the boundary area, which demarcates the area of the lake. Ms Jairath said officials' "counterfactual surveying" leads to a lot of problems. "Officials usually suggest that as long as the lake maintains FTL, there is no harm being done to it. When in fact, the truth is completely different," Ms Jairath said.
The activist alleged: "By dumping along the boundary the water remains at the FTL, but the water is reducing, the lake is being destroyed. The lakes' water holding capacity has reduced. These are issues that we have to be sensitive towards. But authorities say that as long as the lakes have an FTL that is being maintained, none of the lakes are harmed."
While the court recently woke up to the disappearance of Hyderabad's lakes, HMDA officials have said that even Masab Tank, a bustling settlement in central Hyderabad, was also once a lake. Metropolitan Commissioner, T Chiranjeevulu, said encroachment is a result of rapid urbanisation. "The GHMC and HMDA are surveying to identify these encroachments and take necessary action. With respect to the Banjara Lake, there is a dumping of building material in the lake. GHMC is looking into the matter and will take necessary action to prevent it," said the official.
Local activists refer to this as the "murder of lakes" and call the civic body's beautification project a facade for the water bodies' "destruction".