Hold your horses! Sprawling Gurram Cheruvu vanishing at galloping pace!

Hyderabad: One of the major lakes in Balapur mandal, the Gurram Cheruvu, whose FTL was officially declared as over 90 acres has shrunk to almost one-third of its size within a decade, leaving only the water body roughly on water spread area.

The rapid expansion of the residential colonies around the lake, particularly on the southern side has not only taken place beyond the Buffer Zone, but also the FTL of the water body. When the GHMC had conducted a survey (in 2014), the water spread area was 38.72 acres and the area of the tank upto FTL was 90.69 acres. The lake also has 789m of bund, whose breach wreaked havoc in the nearby localities.

In 2020, the lake was in news as the lake’s weir was broken following heavy inflows and rainfall, rather than opening the sluice gates. Several localities near Hafez Baba Nagar were inundated. The heavy flooding also impacted the other areas including new colonies of Balapur. Just a year before the flooding hit in 2019, a case was also registered against the local Corporator for alleged encroachment upon the lake. Cases under different sections of IPC and Irrigation Act were registered against the Corporator and others following a complaint by Tahsildar of Balapur Mandal. It was alleged that the lake was being filled with gravel and the surface was being levelled within the FTL.

Recently, environmental and social activist Dr Lubna Sarwath emphasising how numerous lakes were encroached upon in Bandlaguda mandal, said that it was high time the State government and HYDRA also refer to Survey of India maps to identify the true expanse of the lakes and contain encroachment. “During 2020 floods a lot of localities bore the brunt and were actually underwater. Lakes and nalas are completely encroached in the area. We request Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and chairman of HYDRA take note of the present situation while putting side by side the Survey of India maps,” she urged.