Medieval garden in Golconda Fort torched for expanding golf course

Trees which were torched in the 17th century Bagh-e-Naya Qila in Golconda Fort on Monday to make way for expanding the Hyderabad Golf Club. The fort can be seen in the background.
| Photo Credit: SIDDHANT THAKUR

On Monday afternoon, the 17th century Bagh-e-Naya Qila was torched to clean up the ‘grassy and marshland’ to make way for expanding the Hyderabad Golf Club (HGC) from the 6,300-metre course to a PGA-level 7,100-metre course.

“There was a grassy area which we are removing so that we can carry on the landscape work to expand the golf course,” said B.V.K. Raju, the president of HGC. The Bagh-e-Naya Qila is a 17th century symmetrical Deccani Garden that has survived the fall of Qutb Shahi rule and Asaf Jahi rule inside the Golconda Fort which is under the custody of Archaeological Survey of India. The Naya Qila extension of the Golconda Fort was built in 1656.

A view of a part of the Bagh-e-Naya Qila in Golconda Fort which was cleared to to make way for the expansion of Hyderabad Golf Club in Hyderabad on Monday.
| Photo Credit:
SIDDHANT THAKUR

As the garden was torched, the security personnel of the HGC stopped journalists from entering the premises citing ongoing landscaping work. “You cannot go as the work is going on for the past fortnight,” said a security personnel as he shooed away other visitors to the fort which has two disused mosques and the biological wonder of a Boabab tree that is estimated to be over 400 years old..

A decade earlier in 2014, the ASI carried out an extensive excavation in the area and even built an interpretation centre on what used to the settlement tank for water that fed the courses of the medieval garden and pavilions. It also discovered water channels, settlement tanks, walkways, fountains, gravity pumps and a host of other garden relics. In 2018, the ASI wanted to use a ground penetrating radar to map the ground of the garden as there were reports of Chabutras (gazebos).

Parked tractors used to clear debris in Bagh-e-Naya Qila in Golconda Fort, Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit:
SIDDHANT THAKUR

“The golf course was dubbed a ‘mickey mouse’ course by some foreign golf players. We thought there is a contiguous land and we got permission for expanding the course from the courts so we are going ahead,” said Ajay Reddy of the HGC.

“We stopped the golf course personnel from using heavy machinery and they are using only tractors to transport the soil for landscaping work,” informed an ASI official when asked about the ongoing work. In 2017, an ASI excavation expanded the ambit of archaeology in the area after few more structures were discovered when trial trenches were dug in 3-4 acres. Till recently, about 30 acres of land near the garden was under the control of ASI. This will shrink to 10 acres now.