Decade on, citizens renew protest to save KBR Park

Hyderabad: A decade after citizens first launched a people's movement to protect the Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (KBR) National Park, a group of residents assembled again at the park's main gate on Sunday morning, claiming how the state's road projects continue to threaten Hyderabad's most prominent green cover.Protesters alleged that several trees have been felled in the name of the Rs 930 crore H-CITI project, which has proposed seven flyovers and underpasses at junctions surrounding the park's five-km perimeter, despite a stay by the court."The Telangana High Court, while hearing a PIL on the issue in 2021, imposed an interim stay on tree felling in August that year. That stay has not been vacated. Yet, the govt has resorted to felling and has even increased the number of trees listed for being cut from 1,300 to 1,942 without seeking the court's approval," claimed activist Lubna Sarwath who was part of the protest.She said that the next hearing in the case is May 5."At the last hearing on March 31, govt counsel admitted that no affidavit was filed complying with the court's 2021 direction to prove that a mandatory public hearing was held before the park's buffer zone was reduced. RTI replies showed no hearing report existed," said Kaajal Maheshwari, the organiser of the protest.For many, standing under the sun at 7 am was part of their effort to protect what they described as the city's remaining green spaces. Among those present were Akash Pitti, who said he had been walking in the park since 1980, and artist Sabita Lakshmanan, who said she came to the park for 20 years because it was the one place in the city where she felt at peace with no sound of traffic or chaos.Natasha Ramarathnam, a development consultant and petitioner in the Chevella banyan tree case, said she followed the KBR issue since 2018 and believed flyovers would not solve traffic problems. "They never ease traffic, only shift bottlenecks. The only long-term solution is reliable public transport," she told TOI. On the trees being translocated, she said, "The Central Vista redevelopment project in New Delhi made a big deal of translocation and only 42% of those trees survived. If you take 2,000 trees and dump them somewhere, who is going to look after them?"Describing the park as "a whole different world" Pitti said that the entire carriageway would be lost 10 years ago if not for the protest. "We come here with the same hope again today. The park is the lung of the city. We cannot lose it," added Lakshmanan.When contacted, GHMC chief engineer Sahadev Ratnakar said all works around KBR park were being carried out in compliance with the legal framework established by the NGT and MoEF&CC. "Tree felling and translocation permissions were granted by the District Forest Officer, Hyderabad, in Feb 2026, and all construction was proposed outside the ESZ," he told TOI.On the increase in the number of trees for felling, he said the comparison being made was misleading. "The park-side affected trees have been substantially minimised from 761 to nine in the revised proposal. This shift clearly indicates that the design prioritises environmental conservation," he said while refraining from responding to allegations of activists about the felling being carried out in violation of court orders.
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