The video grab has angered the tech-savvy community across the country. Peacocks, parrots, birds, and baboons, as well as the Babus (educated people of the State), raise their voices against such bulldozer action.
Bulldozers knocked down trees on 400 acres of land in the forest region of Kancha Gachibowli, which now falls in Telangana.
Interestingly, as the footage shows, this vast green patch otherwise is just a bird flying away from the Hyderabad Central University campus. Environment news updates in India.
When the matter sprung into the limelight, a bevvy of HCU (Hyderabad Central University) students took to the streets to lodge a strong protest and vent their ire.
Supreme Court swung into action too by taking suo moto notice of the organized green slaughter at Kancha Gachobowli. Environment News updates in India.
Just yesterday, the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the parliament) had a fiery discussion on the issue.
What exactly is the dispute (or should we say, conflict of interest)?
The controversy involving Kancha Gachibowli broke out in 2003 when the state was undivided as Andhra Pradesh and the writ of Chandrababu Naidu ran large, as he sat in the Chief Minister’s seat.
Going by a lot of reports published in recent times, about 400 acres of land was “re-developed” to facilitate an IT park and this land lay close to Kancha Gachibowli.
Now, in Telangana state, the government intends to build an IT hub alongside other amenities and the land that they have selected, is nestled in the vicinity of Kancha Gachibowli region, as per India’s premier news agency PTI.
Henceforth, according to PTI, a UoHSU leader maintains that the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited publicized the sale of 400 acres of stretch in this embattled region.
However, no independent media has been able to get hold of this leader and therefore no confirmation of his assertions.
Reports tell us that the area includes the Mushroom Rock neighbourhood which falls under the purview of the University of Hyderabad and its east campus.
The UoHSU leader asserts that such a demolition would lead to the annihilation of Hyderabad’s biodiversity and the university would lose its land too.
‘Not forest land’ is the land ownership. Environment News updates in India.
The State administration argues that the estate is meant for generating revenue and does not carry the tag of forest land by any law.
The government, this way, extends its claim on the land and negates the ownership from any other party, PTI reports.
In its defence, the UoH Registrar produced a statement showing that the boundary issue of the disputed area has already been agreed upon.
The statement, which Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) upholds, strongly invalidates any right of UoH on the said property and establishes its ownership in the court of law of the land of Telangana.
TGIIC stated, “Disputes, if any, created on the ownership of land, will be a contempt of the court,”
This was in March that the students discovered earthmovers and heavy police presence in and around the forest which alerted them and the students’ union filed a complaint for this.
As a result, police put over 50 students behind bars who were later released.
Police stressed the government order which TGIIC has and started construction according to that as of March 30 but a handful of UoH employees and other conservationists gathered at the site and used force to arrest the “development activities”.
Consequently, police apprehended two people as they attacked law enforcement with sticks and stones.
Politicians and Celebrities Talk Back
Ravi Chandra Vaddiraji, a Rajya Sabha MP, elaborated on the case here on Thursday.
He accused the authorities of using a “JCB” at night to clear the field.
He confirmed the notice and a “factual” document that was sent to the Chief Secretary of the State from the environment ministry.
Meanwhile, the matter was also raked in the Lok Sabha by Bengaluru MP for the BJP.
Just yesterday, i.e. on Friday, he logged on to X account and uploaded his videographed address there which had a description, as,
“The environmental crimes of Congress in Karnataka and Telangana come at the cost of permanent damage to the ecology and biodiversity at Bandipura and Kancha Gachibowli…”
Then Bollywood actor Dia Mirza also could not hold back her emotions and said,” Students are raising their voices for a future where nature thrives. Forests, not IT parks, offer young people a chance at a sustainable tomorrow.
‘Development’ at the cost of biodiversity is DESTRUCTION. Save Kancha Forest in Gachibowli, Hyderabad.”
Well, dear reader, environment is under attack everywhere across the world and given the growing anomalies we experience such as climate change, El Nina effect, global warming, air pollution in the South Asia and so forth, this is high time, we should think twice before taking such actions.
Development should not be at the cost of such climate factors.
