HYDERABAD: A slew of large-sized residential projects continue to be granted Environmental Clearances by the Telangana government, despite being partly located inside the FTL of various water bodies in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana.
As Express analysed the minutes of various meetings of the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) and State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), it came to light that the Irrigation Department regularly provides NOCs to various real estate developers for a variety of reasons — if a portion of a construction project is located inside the Full Tank Level of a lake, for alteration of natural drainage to accommodate the construction project or for projects that are located right next to large water bodies. Moreover, it is also observed that the Environment Management Plans churned out by consultants of the real estate developers many times do not contain complete information.
For example, as per minutes of SEAC meeting held on July 9, a portion of a large residential project with 1,118 houses proposed at survey numbers 178, 179, 180 and 181 Ameenpur falls in buffer/FTL of Pedda Cheruvu and also affects a nala (feeder channel). The EMP of the project does not mention the existence of Pedda Cheruvu in a column titled “Areas which are important or sensitive for ecological reasons”, even though a case is ongoing in NGT regarding the pollution in Ameenpur lake and other lakes connected to it, including Pedda cheruvu.
Another example is a project proposed at Pocharam in Ghatkesar, which received 30cm of rainfall in a single day last year and experienced severe flooding. As per the minutes of SEAC meeting held on July 2, the project partly falls in the FTL of Vaduloni Kunta lake. In the same minutes is a proposal for the diversion of a stream passing through the site of an Integrated Township of the Bhadradri Thermal Power Station.
NO LESSONS LEARNT
Most proposals received a green signal from the Irrigation Department with some minor conditions, indicating that no lessons have been learnt from regular incidents of flooding.