Hyderabad: Civil society groups clear garbage at Khajaguda rocks

Hyderabad: Around 70 people turned up early on Sunday, June 9, to clean garbage from the ancient Khajaguda rocks in the city. The drive was led by a handful of civil society groups present at the site, which has fallen prey to the apathy of the government and citizens as many visitors simply dump garbage and leave the place dirty without any consequences. The Khajaguda rocks have also seen several encroachments over the past decade and are still not fenced by HMDA. “Around 65-70 people came for the cleaning this morning. It started at 6:30 am and we finished the job by around 8 am,” said Sangeeta Verma of Society to Save Rocks. Members of Waste Project, Eastman Group, Society to Save Rocks, High Flyers (which works on soft skills for underprivileged students) and Hyderabad Cycling Club also jointly participated in the Khajaguda rocks cleaning drive. The biggest upset for Sangeeta was that despite having filled 74 bags with garbage, there was still a lot left to be done. “The 74 bags were probably 1% of the garbage. They contained water bottles, soft drink bottles, pouches, cigarette lighters and more. It was a very frustrating 1.5 hours, as there were small pieces of broken bottles. We also had to remove garbage from the cracks in the rocks. There was a group celebrating a birthday there, and even though they were watching us, they broke their bottles too,” he said.

Recently in March, taking cognizance of encroachment on the historic Khajaguda rocks, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) demolished the illegally constructed gates within the complex. HMDA officials also maintained possession of the heritage site, which has been surrounded by encroachment for the past two years. In the past three weeks, two illegal temple sanctums and gates have been built within the complex. Earlier this year, two new unauthorised sacred sites were built on the historic Khajaguda rocks. The site has been facing serious threats of encroachment in the past few years, including digging up and destruction of ancient rock structures by various parties. Activists involved in protecting the site believe this is being done to take over the 270-acre site in the name of religion. “There are no policemen, no security personnel there. A group of people were even using police sirens. Hopefully people will understand that they should not throw garbage,” said Sangeeta. HMDA was supposed to take control of Khajaguda rocks
The Khajaguda rock site is an ancient site and forms a significant part of Hyderabad’s landscape. It was earlier a protected area and was on the state government’s list of protected sites. This cannot be changed and any work there must be done with permission from HMDA. The rocks here are reportedly millions of years old. “They were supposed to fence the entire Khajaguda Hills and the contractor was also present there. HMDA has not done it yet and the security personnel who were there earlier have also been removed. We have started asking the government to put Khajaguda Hills back in the protected list of monuments,” said Sangeeta. She also thanked the Narsingi Municipality for sending trucks to collect garbage bags. Fakhruddin Gutta, popularly known as Khajaguda Hills, is a protected heritage site in Hyderabad. It is much loved and visited by trekkers, rock climbers, walkers and others. However, for over a decade, the place has been witnessing destruction due to encroachment. The site with several million-year-old rocks is located in Nanakramguda, Hyderabad. It is just a 20-minute drive from the Amazon Hyderabad campus and the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Gachibowli. The rocks of Khajaguda also provide a green space amidst the busy, concrete-filled IT corridor. It is a Hyderabad climbing site It is also the venue for championships which are getting recognition across the country. The several million year old rocks at Khajaguda are unique in many ways. Many cave systems in Telangana are not formed by the movement of water but by the gradual weathering and breaking down of granite in the hills.