Hyderabad: In a bid to save the protected site of Khajaguda Hills, a group of citizens stopped a tractor that arrived to dump debris in the precious rock formation areas on Thursday. Activists say that its part of various attempts to level the whole region into a soil dump.
This is not the first time that such an attempt has happened. Citizen groups and Activists have been on a row of protests and campaigns in order to awaken the authorities to attempts made at bringing the nature site to extinction. In spite of all the campaigns, activists say that enough is not being done to protect these invaluable hills.
Hyderabad: Citizens protest to save Khajaguda Hills from extinction
According to a report on the New Indian Express, the Gandipet MRO under whose jurisdiction the area comes under, has filed a police complaint against the three vehicles that were found to be dumping construction waste in the area on Wednesday. “Based on our complaint, three vehicles with unidentified persons were booked in an FIR at Narsingi police station,” said A Rajashekhar, MRO Gandipet according to the report.
The site with rocks dating to several million years is located in Nanakramguda and is just a 20-minute drive from the Amazon Hyderabad campus and the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Gachibowli, thereby providing a green lung space amidst the hectic, concrete-filled IT corridor. It is also the location of the Hyderabad Climbing Championship that is gaining recognition across the country.
Telangana High Court’s order dating back to 4/06/2019 gave a verdict that the Khajaguda rocks should not be disturbed, damaged, or destroyed.
An online petition put out by ‘Society to Save rocks’ is trending online and is appealing to the various departments of the Government of Telangana to ‘Save Rocks of Khajaguda /Fakhruddingutta, Hyderabad, Telangana and also has the following demands:
1) To immediately stop the destruction of rocks at Fakhruddingutta
2) To include all the heritage rock formations listed as per previous G.O’S in the Telangana Heritage (Protection, Preservation, Conservation, and Maintenance) Act, 2017.
3) Develop Fakhruddingutta into a Rock, Nature, and Adventure Park for the citizens of Hyderabad.
