An earthmover at work levelling the area inside the buffer zone of the Lotus Pond in Hyderabad after breaking the boundary wall on Monday.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
The stone paved pathway moves up and down around the elliptical lake obscured by giant trees and thick growth of vegetation on both sides. The compound wall, a combination of stone masonry work and occasionally grilles, plays hide and seek with the walkers.
On the western periphery of the famous lake runs a flight of steps down from the pathway, which is blocked by a few tree branches. Reaching the other side of the branches, if one looks up, one can see a slope of freshly dug up earth devoid of greenery, being filled in by an excavator machine which has entered the premises after breaking the grille and the stone masonry base.
It is tough to believe that the security guard tearing the calm with his whistle as an alert for the visitors to leave, could not hear the whirr of the excavator engine and the sound of crumbling wall at midnight.
Lotus Pond, cherished by the residents of Jubilee Hills and nature lovers for its idyllic aura and biodiversity, is presently witnessing one of the most brazen attempts at encroachment right under the nose of the civic authorities.
Even more shocking is the fact that encroachments into the park have never stopped on the Film Nagar side where the compound wall touches the Road Nos. 11 & 86.
In fact, traces of the stone masonry wall are erased at a few locations, where one can see walls rising in concrete– clear evidence of realty manufactured from the buffer area of the lake, by pushing in the boundaries. One of the properties is ironically named after the very lake, the area of which it has encroached.
Lotus Pond had been an inconsequential lake where a Dhobhi ghat existed before 1999, when the then Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad had decided to protect it and develop its barren landscape.
“With painstaking effort, we had held several rounds of negotiations with the washermen community, and ensured that they got an alternative location. We built a sturdy compound wall and planted the buffer area with native, tall growing trees replicating a forest,” a retired official who had conceptualised the park reminisced.
The pond & park were inaugurated by the then Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu in 2001-02, after which the location gained immense admiration from city residents.
Notwithstanding its popularity, the lake was preliminarily notified by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) only in 2014, after which final notification came in 2016.
A close inspection of the Google Earth historical images of the buffer area reveal blatant encroachment even after the final notification, with no action from the authorities whatsoever. The encroachments almost play with the lake’s seven acre water spread boundary demarcated in HMDA maps, denoting absolute impunity.
While the lake was being frequented earlier by several visitors, photographers and pre- and post-wedding shooters, cameras have recently been prohibited in the premises, which makes encroachments even more easier.
Several high profile individuals have their residences near the Lotus Pond, including the former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and tennis star Sania Mirza. The latest encroachment is bang opposite the residence of the incumbent MLA from Munugode constituency, K. Rajagopal Reddy.
