Hyderabad: Real estate developers in Cyberabad have been given a free hand by the state government to break up rocks. Trucks loaded with huge boulders making unending trips from the Cyberabad area are a regular sight. The destination is usually a lake or an open plot where the boulders are dumped.
Cyberabad is slowly losing its natural topography of hillocks with huge boulders thanks to real estate and industrial development but there is no tracking as to where all the boulders are being dumped.
It turns out that the boulders are dumped in the small villages behind Gachibowli where they are crushed into gravel and powder or are just thrown along the roadside. These villages are fast becoming home to unchecked commercial and residential constructions which let out sewage right into open water bodies.
Gowlidoddi and Gopanpally are home to three lakes. On three sides of one lake in Gowlidoddi, a hill created out of blasted boulders is slowly growing.
This artificial hill is slowly eating into the lake area and the government is not taking any action. Truckloads of boulders are evacuated from a major residential project near Madhapur every night and sometimes in the mornings too. Blasting of rocks can be heard in the mornings.
When one of the truck drivers was asked where the boulders were taken, he said, “We dump the boulders in a lake in Gowlidoddi. It will get filled up one day.”
All along the road from Gowlidoddi to Gopanpally, boulders can be seen strewn along the roads.
Stone-crushing units owned by relatives of local politicians operate here, selling sand and gravel crushed out of the boulders. No pollution control mechanism is in place here. Dust is spewed in the air close to villages.
It’s free for all with no set rules for dumping
Environmental clearances that are given for construction projects do not lay down any condition when it comes to moving and dumping of boulders that are blasted at construction sites.
An official of the Telangana state environment and forests department said that conditions are laid on management of debris if a building is to be demolished for construction of a new one but there are no specific conditions on disposal of boulders because environmental clearances are not very site specific.
The management of boulders forms an important part of construction projects in Cyberabad where the terrain is hilly. Construction companies ferry huge boulders in trucks without covering them.
As they travel along the roads from Gachibowli to Nanakramguda and further, fine particles from the boulders get into the eyes of two-wheeler riders.
The particles stay suspended in the air for long, affecting the people who are in the vicinity. Trucks have been transporting boulders like this for years but the government has not taken any step to ensure the safety of motorists on the road.
Besides, there is no clear environmental law on whether the dumping of boulders on open land is legal. At many places, dumping is done near lakes which blocks the channels which flow into the water bodies. As a result, the lakes are drying-up leaving them open for land grabbers.
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