Hyderabad’s Musi River Being Encroached: Activist Asks Proceedings Against Officials

Armed with satellite images of the Musi river in Hyderabad over 5 years between 2014 and 2019, a social activist, on Wednesday, wrote to the Chief Justice of Telangana Raghavendra Singh Rathore seeking his intervention to save the river from encroachment.

Recent Satellite images show how over a few years the dumping of waste into the river has increased and so have the encroachments along the riverbanks.

This Hyderabad based activist, Lubna Sarwath, has also sought a directive from the Telangana high court to the state government to initiate proceedings against officials and public representatives for dereliction of duty in being unable to protect the river.

Furthermore, the Musi River originates in the Vikarabad district in Telangana near the Ananthagiri Hills and only a 50 km stretch of the river passes through present-day Hyderabad. The river then merges with the Krishna river at Nalgonda district.

A digital survey of the Musi River was done using Google Earth's historical satellite imagery from 2014 to 2019. The activist says the pictures show how over the years dumped garbage and waste by the riverbed was leveled and eventually encroached upon in areas such as Shankar Nagar. Accordingly, Lubna who is associated with Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL), an organization working to save lakes in Hyderabad, also did a field survey of Shankar Nagar where the land was being encroached.

The activist has asked the court to direct Telangana state Water, Land and Tree Act (WALTA) authority to evict the encroachers and submit an action plan to restore the Musi River.

Also, she has asked the court to direct the Musi River Development Corporation to submit their report on the work done so far in restoring the river.