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The message for assist was on social media inside hours of the start of the downpour on Tuesday evening. The location: Chakradhar Colony, Nagaram. A fast search on the map reveals the colony to be constructed to the north of the Nagaram lake. Search for the locality 20 years in the past and it doesn’t exist. Twenty years in the past, the land the place the colony exists now was a part of the lake. Till 2015 the colony didn’t exist.
The similar story repeats in numerous different localities the place flooding has wrecked havoc due to the heaviest rainfall in recorded historical past in Hyderabad. Boduppal, Bandari Colony, Nadeem Colony, Macca Colony, Singareni Colony, Vambay Colony and Gaganpahad space. A corollary to the flooding in these localities is not any change within the water high quality or ranges within the lake close to Taj Banjara Hotel, Masab Tank and Mir Alam Tank. On Thursday when town was coming to phrases with the flood and estimating the injury, rain water didn’t even dislodge the water hyacinth crops within the Mir Alam Tank or the pond scum in Masab Tank.
Housing colonies
But the identical couldn’t be mentioned concerning the lakes and tanks within the southern a part of Hyderabad. Yerra Kunta, Madikunta, Jalapalli, Umda Sagar and Palle Cheruvu have been only a collection of interconnected lakes sure by rocks and pure terrain about 20 years in the past. But a collection of housing colonies for the poor constructed on land reclaimed from lakes and encroachments by prospectors has shrunk the lakes. On Thursday water overflowed the lakes and flowed onto the roads and open areas. But on Wednesday at about 1.20 a.m., water from these lakes had raced onto opens areas and crashed a wall, upturned autos plying on roads and killed at the least three individuals within the Gaganpahad space.
“What could have been a miracle of nature has been turned into an object of terror due to government policies,” says Lubna Sarwath of Save Our Urban Lakes who has been campaigning towards encroachments in lake beds. “We need a mechanism like lake tribunals that will take quick and informed decisions rather than depend on civil courts which take time,” says Ms. Sarwath.
Incidentally, the flooding has affected many plots which were created on the lake beds close to Jalapally. “Encroached land is almost free but if the same plot has to be purchased it will cost a lot. That’s why lake beds have become easy targets. It is not population pressure but land value pressure that is driving this destructive growth,” says B. V. Subba Rao who works within the subject of convergence and sustainability.
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