Satellite images show encroachment of surplus channel connecting Chinna Bandam Cheruvu, Lingam Cheruvu and Bhajanshai Kunta.
Social media account of the Malla Reddy Health City describes it as one of the largest medical hubs in the State of Telangana, spread over 100-acre campus with two hospitals, an exclusive Oncology Block, two medical colleges and two dental colleges, besides one nursing college.
The health city, ensconced in the triangle formed by three lakes as vertices in the Suraram area of Qutbullahpur suburb, also houses the lifeline of all the three lakes, namely, Chinna Bandam Cheruvu, Lingam Cheruvu and one more Bhajanshai Kunta.
Chinna Bandam Cheruvu receives its flows from the Pedda Bandam Cheruvu upstream. Excess water from the former merges with the flows from the Lingam Cheruvu right on the health city campus. From there, the flow traverses the length of health city, to enter the Bhajanshai Kunta. During the October 2019 rains the floodwaters entered the ICU of the hospital.
The water channel stands obstructed at multiple locations now. As can be seen from the historical satellite images, the encroachment of the channel had started way before 2010, with the construction of the Malla Reddy Dental College for Women. Later, the Malla Reddy Hospital sprang up right on the channel, as shown by the irrigation maps superimposed on the satellite images. The medical college and another dental college followed, which became full fledged institutions by 2014.
A government junior college was constructed on the channel from Lingam Cheruvu in 2014-15, adjacent to the health city. A cricket stadium and soccer ground have further restricted the flow of water by 2019. Between 2020 and 2021, large extent of the surplus stream from Chinna Bandham Cheruvu can be seen filled up and levelled, and a narrow channel constructed in concrete meandering through the periphery of the land parcel, up to the soccer ground.
Come 2023, a large new structure can be seen under construction right on the surplus channel of Chinna Bandam Cheruvu, where it had been filled up earlier. In the current year, attempts to fill in the other side of the Chinna Bandam lake too can be seen.
Lake activist Lubna Sarwath called out the encroachment of the surplus channel connecting the three lakes, and sought prompt action in a letter addressed to the Joint Metropolitan Commissioner of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
Attaching the ISRO NRSC Bhuvan’s Satellite imageries of 2012-2016, Sarwath alleged that the Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences has encroached the channel, and Google historical images showed the attempts in the current year too.
She also pointed out the fact that the HMDA’s web page of lakes does not contain the FTL/Cadastral maps of the Lingam Cheruvu (id 2819) and Bhajanshahi Kunta (id 2843), even while the same for an adjacent lake, Chinna Bandam Cheruvu with the id 2844 can be seen.
