Despite restrictions at Khajaguda Hills, cleanliness drive unmasks dirty picture

Hyderabad: Despite the Telangana police imposing nighttime access restrictions and posting warnings at Khajaguda Hills, conditions have not improved. Locals and city social activists reported this on Sunday during a cleanliness drive at the hill.

The drive, conducted as part of World Environment Week, saw participation from over 100 environmental enthusiasts. It was organised by A Waste Project, Hyderabad Cycling Revolution, DJ Space_Man, Flying High, Greater Hyderabad Adventure Club, and Society to Save the Rock. Volunteers reported piles of garbage, primarily plastic waste such as used bottles and glasses, stacked on the hilltop. They collected 74 bags of garbage, which volunteers noted was less than 1 per cent of the total cleanup needed.

“For me, it was 1½ hours of mixed feelings: frustration, anger, hopelessness, and spikes of determination, hope, and happiness seeing like-minded folks all breaking their backs picking up broken bottles, glass pieces, plastics, PET bottles, diapers, beer cans, plastic caps, and gutka sachets. There is an urgent need to place the hill back on the heritage list, and the police need to monitor the activities that take place here. In February, Telangana police imposed restrictions but did not do any monitoring. Many times, we requested the installation of CCTV cameras to catch and penalise those littering and driving on the hill in a drunken state, but our pleas fell on deaf ears,” said Sangeeta Varma, Vice President, Society to Save Rocks.

“Most of the waste found in the water is single-use plastic. Many youngsters celebrate birthday parties here but fail to dispose of the trash properly. All of it ends up piling up in the hills,” added Hasseb, a volunteer and member of the Hyderabad Cycling Revolution.

Santhana Selvan, Bicycle Mayor of Hyderabad, said, “Apart from the authorities, we citizens should take responsibility for keeping the city clean and follow basic norms for disposing of garbage. This is a very old site, and it should be preserved, but that is not happening. It would be better if the concerned department placed more dustbins, as the current number is insufficient.”

Along with the Khajaguda Hills cleanup drive, another drive took place at Golconda Fort, organised by the Dhruvansh NGO. Approximately 50 volunteers participated, collecting 1 ton of garbage from the fort.

“Protecting our natural and architectural heritage is the duty of every citizen, and we must work day and night to ensure that future generations have a healthy and beautiful environment,” stated the volunteers.