Durgam cheruvu: A glittering view, a gasping lake

As Hyderabad approaches evening, Durgam Cheruvu begins performing, framed by its height, bathed in light, carried by music, presenting a carefully constructed show to those watching from above. From the fourth-floor rooftop restaurant, the lake’s surface sparkles like a string of diamonds, the suspension bridge above it sparkles in tricolor hues, and trance music floats through the open air. Customers settle in with drinks in their hands and are fascinated by the view.

A person who visited the restaurant-bar for the second time says, “Within 10 minutes, the smell disappears from the mind and the view becomes fascinating. Then we get lost in the conversation.”

On the other side, at the boating point, visitors line up for a speedboat ride (500 rupees for 25 minutes) that zips through waters filled with floating puddles. gurrapudekka (water hyacinth). The pilot steers the boat with practiced ease, but the smell of rotting organic matter is too strong.

“We resumed boating only a week ago. We had to stop boating operations because visitors complained about the bad smell and the water became unnavigable. It took us 20 days to clean the boat. gurrapudekka“says an official from Telangana Tourism.

The paradox of Durgam Cheruvu lies between the elaborate entertainment landscape built around luxury restaurants and the carefully staged dazzling view of the lake, and the sickening reality of decay. One of the largest bodies of water to withstand decades of pressure and official intervention from developers and official interventions, it is still being quietly altered: the water level has been lowered and its edges reshaped to free up land.

The mechanics of this damage become visible at the southern end of the lake. Descending a few steps towards the sluice gate, an Irrigation Department official recalls a moment from the last monsoon and suggests that it changed the behavior of the lake.

“Last monsoon, the lake embankment was dug to lay a new pipe to release the water. It was dug after the water level rose. Previously, it was rising to this level,” he says, pointing to a sign roughly two meters above the existing water line. The figure closely agrees with readings from cell phone altimeters and elevation maps of the area. A two-metre drop in water level on the Deccan Plateau not only means a lowering of the coastline; revealing acres of land around a lake. Land already encroached upon by the construction of a raised embankment to create a fait accompli.

The implications of this for a lake of Durgam Cheruvu’s scale and history are profound. Once a source of drinking water and the reservoir that filled the moat surrounding the Golconda Fort, the full tank level has been changed many times to free the land. Historical records, anecdotal accounts and old photographs show that the lake’s level has been changing steadily over the decades, cumulatively lowering by about two metres. The old sluice gate on the south side bears physical evidence of this change. The lake’s original full tank level, at 560.1 meters above sea level, matched the water tank in the upper reaches of Golconda Fort, allowing water to flow by gravity. Following the intervention of the water administration in 2015, the sluice gate is now at an altitude of 558 meters.

“Some very powerful people built houses around the lake. During the monsoon, when the lake waters entered their houses, they forced the authorities to release the water. Then the problem of loss of natural inflow channels for rain and rainwater arose. Now only sewage enters here regularly,” says Sajjad Shahid, Hyderabad historian and engineer. His account was verified by the Irrigation Department official.

The official, who has been working in the Irrigation department for 40 years, says, “Whenever I receive instructions, I close and open the valve. Previously, before opening the valve, the water was allowed to reach here. Excess water was flowing towards Malkam Cheruvu through the canal next to the mosque. Now all the water is discharged from this sluice gate and there are two more pipelines through which the water flows automatically.”

construction frenzy

Shahid remembers a lake very different from today’s. He says that in the early 1980s, the water was pure blue and the environment was largely empty. “It’s hard to believe that the area is just land. The few people who built houses there reported frequent thefts. Jubilee Hills Housing Association then threatened to open land owners to build houses, otherwise the land would be taken back. This triggered frenzied construction activity,” he says.

Most of the residential colonies proliferated between 1995 and 2020 due to the IT boom emanating from Hitec City, Cyber ​​Towers and the establishment of Cyberabad Development Authority (CDA) on January 20, 2001. The expansion spread far beyond the CDA’s zoned areas and turned into a free-for-all arrangement marked by illegal settlements. Shahid argues that the water level of the lake is now deliberately kept low to ensure that wealthy residents living by the lake are not left in a difficult situation.

Recently, Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) announced that it has evacuated the slum dwellers who have turned a part of the lake into a parking lot. However, before the signs posted by the enforcement agency could dry, the fences erected on the site were moved aside using excavators; so the water hyacinth could be removed with a weeder and bucket excavator. “We charge ₹2.5 lakh per month and ₹10,000 per day to clear the weed. If we don’t clear it regularly, the weeds will completely cover the lake again within 20 days,” says the contractor handling the cleaning operation.

The pollution fueling the lake’s decline has a measurable source. The 7 MLD (million liters per day) sewage treatment plant on the north side of Durgam Cheruvu releases around 10 lakh cubic meters of treated water into the lake every 10 days (data for the older 5 MLD plant is not available).

Visualized differently, the discharge is equivalent to a 100 square meter water tower carrying a coliform count of 430 MPN (the most likely number) per 100 ml. The numbers tell a paradoxical story: The water meets certain clean water criteria with a Chemical Oxygen Demand of 40 mg/L, while the Biological Oxygen Demand stands at 3 mg/L; This makes it unsuitable even for wildlife and marine life. It is this organic-laden water constantly released into the lake that fuels the uncontrolled growth of water hyacinth.

The engineering solution to stop this flow has been known for over a decade. Thirteen years ago, initial proposals and approval were given for the creation of a ring bund and laying of the main ring line at Durgam Cheruvu, as well as the construction of stopping and diverting structures at Madhapur and Silent Valley nalas. The first phase of diverting sewage entering the lake is estimated to cost ₹ 35 crore. Since then, funds have been approved under different plans, but the result has been the opposite of what was intended: the lake has shrunk from 160.6 acres and water quality continues to deteriorate.

But something changed last year: fear. In the lakeside colonies, the anxiety that once accompanied official markings has largely disappeared. “Most of the residents have erased the signs made by the authorities. Only a faint sign remains,” says Srinivasulu, who has worked as a watchman in a villa overlooking the lake for 11 years.

The contrast with the past is stark. “The gardens attached to the palaces had zig-zagging canals at intervals, and the precincts were filled with fountains and pools. The palaces were built on a plateau and were harmoniously arranged, with streams and waterfalls surrounding the main structure. Fountains were built on all sides in beautiful spots,” wrote William Methwold after visiting Hyderabad in 1622.

Nearly 400 years later, residents around Durgam Cheruvu sit behind mosquito nets, use lightweight joss sticks to keep insects away and close windows when the wind turns. Mosquitoes the size of coins buzz around inside the Last House Coffee Shop and bite diners.

power games

In August 2024, the Serilingampally Municipality tehsildar issued notices citing Section 23 of Water, Land and Trees to 240 house and property owners around Durgam Cheruvu. (WALTA) Act. Houses in Amar Society were marked with a red ‘F’ overnight, indicating that the lake was at full storage level (FTL), creating a wave of panic among wealthy residents who said they did not know they were breaking the law.

Besides Amar Society, residents of Nectar Garden and Doctors Colony and a few homeowners in Kavuri Hills have been directed to remove illegal structures within FTL and the buffer zone of the water body.

Rumors about demolitions gained momentum coinciding with HYDRAA’s demolition of part of N-Convention, owned by actor Akkineni Nagarjuna.

Among the submissions were Tirupathi Reddy, sister of Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy; his spacious office and residence are marked with giant posters of the politician and stand out as landmarks. For a brief moment, it appeared that the days of luxury lakeside cafes and houses with manicured, walled gardens were numbered.

That moment has passed. The Supreme Court has directed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials to consider the 2022 recommendations of a five-member committee, which had ruled that Durgam Cheruvu is no longer an irrigation tank but a tourist spot, and resolve the FTL encroachment issues pragmatically, removing another shred of hope for the lake’s recovery.

Activist Lubna Sarwath of Save Our Urban Lakes says the damage is now visible even to the casual visitor. “I visited the lake about a month ago and saw that the flow had increased more than before. The rocks had been demolished to make way for the pipeline,” he says. What has been erased, he adds, is a landscape that was once described by a technical report as a triangular rocky enclave connecting Durgam Cheruvu, Malkam Cheruvu downstream and Khajaguda Pedda Cheruvu (a natural system that allows water to move, settle and sustain life).

The dissolution of Durgam Cheruvu as an ecosystem is not accidental but incremental; It is an ongoing project shaped by the cumulative actions of all civic institutions in Hyderabad. During the 2025 monsoon, the Irrigation department dug a canal to release more water. At the same time, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board is trying to reconnect a 1,200 mm diameter pipeline to divert sewage from upstream areas surrounding Durgam Cheruvu while discharging large volumes of sewage downstream.

Every intervention is envisaged as a technical necessity. Taken together, it steadily accelerated the transformation of a historic lake into a tightly controlled body of water; its fate was determined less by natural flows and contours and more by pipelines, valves, and convenient real estate imperatives.