One will need to have encountered a viral video the place a gaggle of peacocks may very well be heard crying. The video induced outrage among the many netizens Many shared the video on social media, claiming that bulldozers razed timber unfold throughout 400 acres of land in Telangana’s Kancha Gachibowli forest space close to the Hyderabad Central College campus.
Because the matter got here to mild, a number of college students of Hyderabad Central College (HCU) launched a protest. In the meantime, the Supreme Court docket took suo moto cognizance of the felling of timber at a forest space in Kancha Gachibowli. The problem was additionally raised within the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
What is the controversy about?
The row involving Kancha Gachibowli may be traced to 2003 underneath former united Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s tenure.
Lately, a number of stories claimed 400 acres of land close to the Kancha Gachibowli space in Hyderabad was razed to arrange an IT park. In keeping with PTI, the Telangana authorities’s plans to develop IT infrastructure and others on 400 acres of land at Kancha Gachibowli.
A UoHSU chief was quoted by information company PTI as saying that the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Company Restricted just lately introduced the public sale of 400 acres of land in Kancha Gachibowli.
The UoHSU chief stated this could result in the lack of college land in addition to the biodiversity of Hyderabad.
Mint couldn’t independently confirm these claims.
The land reportedly consists of the Mushroom Rock space throughout the College of Hyderabad, close to its East Campus.
Land possession: ‘Not forest land’
The Congress-led Telangana authorities maintains that the land isn’t notified as forest land and is, actually, income land.
As per PTI, the federal government says that the land parcel belonged to it and never the varsity. Nonetheless, the UoH Registrar issued a press release asserting that the boundary of the disputed land in query was finalised, contradicting the federal government’s declare.
In the meantime, the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Company (TGIIC) stated earlier this week that it had proved its possession of the land in courtroom and that the UoH (a Central college) doesn’t personal any land within the land parcel in query.
“Disputes, if any, created on the possession of land, might be a contempt of the courtroom,” it stated, including that the income information clearly state that the land isn’t forest land, it stated.
Is it college land or govt land?
One other main points is the demarcation between Kancha Gachibowli and the Hyderabad College.
What Telangana govt says
The TGIIC stated that with the consent of the College of Hyderabad Registrar, a survey of the land was performed in July 2024 within the presence of the college officers for identification of boundaries.
“The officers finalized the boundaries on the identical day,” the TGIIC stated, as per PTI.
As per the Information Minute, the federal government famous that income authorities and TGIIC had ensured that income officers within the presence of UoH authorities carried out a survey to make sure that not one inch of college land was touched.
UoH’s response
Nonetheless, the UoH stated no survey was performed in July 2024 by the income authorities within the campus to demarcate the 400 acres of land resumed by the state authorities in 2006.
“The one motion taken to date has been a preliminary inspection of the land’s topography,” UoH Registrar Devesh Nigam stated in a press release.
The college additionally denied the federal government assertion that it has agreed for such demarcation of the land. The Registrar stated they’d requested the state authorities to obviously demarcate the land belonging to the college and likewise preserve the biodiversity within the disputed space.
Countering the college’s claims, official sources instructed PTI that there are paperwork which present that the land in query in Kancha Gachibowli has been handed over to the state authorities in 2004.
UoH claims that in 1975, the united Andhra Pradesh authorities allotted 2,324 acres to them, however the Telangana Excessive Court docket famous in 2022 that no official documentation exists to substantiate this switch.
The ‘Kancha’ in Kancha Gachibowli refers to ‘unproductive land’, which the state argues is income land as per the earliest information, the Information Minute reported.
College students protest
The College of Hyderabad College students’ Union had staged a protest in March after noticing deployment of police and earthmovers on the land, following which over 50 college students had been detained and launched later.
In keeping with police, when the TGIIC initiated improvement work on the website on March 30, as per a Authorities Order, a gaggle of individuals from UoH and likewise others gathered on the website and tried to cease the work “forcibly”. They “attacked” the officers and employees with sticks and stones and two individuals had been arrested on this connection.
Protest erupts: What do protesters demand?
The protesting college students demanded a written assurance that the land can be formally registered underneath the college.
The College college students demanded the Telangana authorities to cease the reported public sale. They demanded withdrawal of the police personnel from the campus and elimination of earth-moving equipment. The scholars additionally condemned the “brutal police crackdown” on peaceable demonstrators.
The College of Hyderabad College students’ Union and different unions and related events launched an indefinite protest and introduced a boycott of lessons from April 1. They’re opposing the proposal to undertake improvement on the land parcel on the grounds of environmental conservation.
In a joint assertion, the UoHSU and different college students’ associations accused the college administration of “betraying” college students by facilitating land clearing actions for the state authorities on 400 acres at Kancha Gachibowli abutting the college.
Eighteen-year-old Boveni Yugendar, a first-year IMA Hindi pupil on the College of Hyderabad, additionally begun a starvation strike on the college’s primary gate—to protest towards the alleged destruction of forest cowl at Kancha Gachibowli, South First reported.
Politicians, celebs react
Rajya Sabha MP Ravi Chandra Vaddiraji raised the problem within the higher home on Thursday. He alleged that the land was cleared utilizing a “JCB” at night time. He stated the atmosphere ministry has been given a “factual” report and issued a discover to the Chief Secretary of State.
In the meantime, BJP’s Bengaluru MP additionally raised the issued within the Lok Sabha. He posted a video from his speech on X early Friday and captioned it as, “The environmental crimes of Congress in Karnataka and Telangana come at the price of everlasting harm to the ecology and biodiversity at Bandipura and Kancha Gachibowli…”
Bollywood actor Dia Mirza additionally voiced the priority, saying, “College students are elevating their voices for a future the place nature thrives. Forests, not IT parks, provide younger folks an opportunity at a sustainable tomorrow. ‘Growth’ at the price of biodiversity is DESTRUCTION. Save Kancha Forest in Gachibowli, Hyderabad.”
At the moment, there are two Public Curiosity Litigations (PILs) towards the state authorities within the Telangana Excessive Court docket. The primary PIL was filed by the NGO Vata Basis, requesting the Excessive Court docket to declare switch of land to the TGIIC as ‘arbitrary and unlawful’.
The second PIL filed by retired Indian Institute of Chemical Know-how (IICT) scientist Babu Rao Kalpala sought the courtroom to declare the state’s motion of razing 400 acres of forest land issued by the Income Division as illegal and a violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the Information Minute reported.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court docket ordered to cease all kinds of developmental actions carried out within the Kancha Gachibowli space in Hyderabad, expressing shock on the large-scale felling of timber in lots of of acres of land there.
Taking suo moto cognizance of the felling of timber, the Supreme Court docket stayed felling of timber on the website and warned Chief Secretary of penalties of its order isn’t complied with.
The Chief Secretary of State was directed to make sure no felling takes place until additional orders.
In the meantime, the Telangana Excessive Court docket on Thursday, April 3, adjourned the Kancha Gachibowli tree-felling case to April 7, granting an extension to the interim order already in place.
