Jalpally lake turns haven for encroachers

Brazenly exploited, the Jalpally lake continues to face the risk of encroachments. If allowed to go unchecked, at least now, the adjoining Jalpally village could turn into another Osman Nagar, the area where hundreds of houses were inundated during the last two years as alleged encroachments had pushed the habitation deeper into the Burhankhan Lake.

Incursion into the Jalpally lake area through dumping of debris continues on the shores almost from all sides, while its water, finding no way out, is gushing out from the choked water body and entering the village only to inundate several houses during the rainy season. The lake, also known as Bada Talab, developed breaches recently during rain while overflowing several locations unable to put up with heavy inflows from the upstream areas. Though much of the water spread area shrunk due to brazen encroachments, the dumping of landfill continues to pose a risk to the survival of the water body.

As per the survey conducted in 2013 by Aarvee Associates, the lake is a notified water body spread over 274.75 acres with a water spread area of 167.480 acres. Notified by the HMDA with an ID No.3602, it is mainly located in Jalpally village under Saroornagar mandal. At several places, the FTL area was allegedly turned into ventures while incursion into the lake keeps on haphazardly. The sprawling lake is losing most of its FTL area to encroachers. Though the lake shares boundaries with Bandlaguda in Chandrayangutta, Mailardevpally in Rajendranagar and Jalpally village, it largely comes under Maheshwaram constituency represented by Minister for Education Sabita Indra Reddy.

The alleged nexus between leaders, officials and land sharks is said to be the main factor for growing encroachments in the shrinking FTL area.

"Incident of houses getting inundated due to overflowing lake has become a new normal in Jalpally village, as encroachments rose unabated in recent years. In the Tallakunta area in ward 16, at least 1.5 acres of lake FTL and government land in survey no 169 were encroached, with new ventures coming up. We are raising the issue since 2019 with the district collector, Sabita, the RDO, the MRO and even the municipal officials, but to no avail. Encroachments keep taking place with full impunity making the surrounding habitation completely vulnerable to natural calamity and disasters," rued Budumala Yadagiri, Councillor, Ward 16 Jalpally. "Everything is open to all here. From local people to leaders and officials, everyone is aware of what is actually going on around the lake. Influential people keep on cashing in on the situation openly, while a few others do so covertly or cohesively, resulting in gradually shrinking of the water body," pointed out Pasha Ali Shoukat, who is familiar with the area and the situation prevailing around the water body.