When will the lakes survey be completed?

The Telangana government’s re-survey of lakes under the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) limits is progressing at a snail’s pace. The government machinery, which showed no interest in the boundaries of lakes within HMDA limits until the High Court issued orders, is now hurriedly conducting surveys to fix FTL and buffer zones. The Revanth Reddy government, which began the survey a year ago to identify the extent of lakes under HMDA limits, decided to clearly determine the FTL and buffer zone boundaries and their total area for all lakes and water bodies. However, there is talk that the lake survey process is not moving as fast as expected. Officials from the Irrigation, Revenue, HMDA, GHMC, and Survey & Settlement departments are engaged in the lake survey work.
For the lake survey, advanced technology and modern equipment are being used. After the survey is completed, the official website will include details of the lakes and ponds within the HMDA limits, including their area, FTL, and buffer zones. Telangana is taking the issues of lakes in Hyderabad, the hydrological system, and the Musi project very seriously and is working intensively on them.

Within HMDA limits, there are a total of 3,500 lakes—big and small. Of these, 920 lakes and ponds fall within Hyderabad city limits. Many of these still do not have their FTL and buffer zones identified. Some have been issued preliminary notifications.

By the time Telangana state was formed in 2014, 225 lakes had already been completely encroached upon. Officials also identified that land belonging to another 196 lakes had been partially encroached. They reported that 499 lakes did not face any encroachments or illegal occupations.

In the last 10 years, from 2014 to 2023, another 20 lakes and ponds were completely encroached upon. Another 24 lakes that were previously partially occupied have now been fully taken over. Using satellite imagery, officials from the Irrigation Department have identified that land belonging to another 127 lakes has been encroached upon as much as possible.

Hydra officials state that about 60 percent of the land in almost every remaining lake has been encroached. As a result, the complete history of all lakes is now being brought to light. The National Remote Sensing Agency is verifying the current status of these lakes using satellite images.

However, it appears that the survey of lakes and water bodies within the HMDA limits is not progressing as smoothly as expected. The determination of lake boundaries in the HMDA area is moving at a snail’s pace. All lake buffer zones and FTL limits were supposed to be finalised by the first week of March. But according to official sources, not even 50 percent of the work has been completed yet. It is said that even senior officials are struggling to coordinate between the Revenue and Irrigation Departments.

Officials have concluded that illegal activities are occurring in the city because GHMC and HMDA have been granting building permissions without conducting any proper inspections. HYDRA has identified cases where buildings are being constructed on one survey number while approvals were taken for a different survey number. To prevent such incidents from recurring, authorities are working on introducing a real-time location system.

During registration, when a survey number is entered, arrangements are being made so that its ground-level coordinates and photo will be automatically displayed to officials. Authorities believe this system will help prevent illegal registrations.

HYDRA has already begun efforts to restore lakes that have been encroached upon. On the other hand, beautification works have started in some lakes where demolitions were already carried out. In this process, the Bathukamma Kunta lake has been restored and inaugurated by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.

Officials say that the remaining lake re-survey works are expected to be completed by the end of December.