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Land sharks encroach Bhadrakali lake
The TS government has a major challenge in implementing the Mission Kakatiya programme as there are many tanks in the state which have fallen prey to land sharks. The Bhadrakali lake in Warangal is one such tank where the encroachment has been going on unabated and several concrete buildings have come up within the limits of the lake bed.
Warangal: The TS government has a major challenge in implementing the Mission Kakatiya programme as there are many tanks in the state which have fallen prey to land sharks. The Bhadrakali lake in Warangal is one such tank where the encroachment has been going on unabated and several concrete buildings have come up within the limits of the lake bed. The Bhadrakali lake incidentally happens to be the summer storage drinking water tank for the city.
According to sources, the encroachments had increased since 1992 when the Kakatiya Urban Development Authority (KUDA) proposed to build a 5km bund-cum-road on the foreshore area to prevent polluted water entering the lake. Thereafter, quite a few illegal constructions abutting the tank-bed have come up on the sides of Padmakshi temple and Hunter road and reality business ruled roost.
It is alleged that the encroachers even managed to prevail over the municipal administration to change original boundary map and this resulted in encroaching into 20 acres of the tank bed area. Though the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation made some attempts to demolish the encroachments it was a half hearted attempt and as a result the Full Tank Level of the lake got shrunk in size.
When asked, municipal officials said that they had put up FTP signs alongside the lake but could not answer why there was mushrooming of illegal constructions in the region. According to convener of the Warangal chapter of Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and the retired Professor of the NIT M Panduranga Rao, the encroachment into the foreshore and Sikham land had resulted in considerable reduction of the storage capacity of the lake.
Rao had also filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court praying the court to direct the Municipal Corporation to construct a permanent bund to prevent encroachments. He said that de-silting of the lake would help the lake to regain its storage capacity that was reduced due to the encroachments. A few weeks ago, the then district collector G Kishan pulled up the officials concerned and directed them to demarcate the FTL area apart from submitting a detailed report to him. However, the agencies concerned are yet to come with a report, sources said.
The revival of the Bhadrakali lake which can store 150 million cubic feet of water can help replenishment of the groundwater in the region. In every summer, water is pumped into the lake through a pipeline from the Kakatiya canal drawn from LMD of Karimnagar to cater to the drinking water needs of tri-cities – Warangal, Hanamkonda and Kazipet.
By:Adepu Mahender
