National Green Tribunal (NGT) has, through a recent order, set a deadline for the State government authorities to take action against encroachments inside the Bum Rukn Ud Daula Lake’s full tank level.
The Southern Bench of NGT presided by judicial member Pushpa Satyanarayana and expert member Satyagopal Korlapati, directed the State government represented by the Chief Secretary, to take action before July 1, and file an action taken report.
The bench has based its order on the facts presented by the petitioner and activist Lubna Sarwat and a joint committee constituted by the Principal Bench of NGT which submitted its report in February this year.
The case has been transferred from the Principal Bench to the Southern Bench before the report was submitted.
Though given liberty to the respondents to file their independent reports, none of the respondents are ready, the bench mentioned in the order.
The members have taken cognizance of Ms. Sarwat’s contention that the authorities had submitted two FTL maps which are different from each other, and her plea that the FTL should be drawn only after removal of the encroachments.
She also prayed for implementation of the joint committee’s recommendations, which include measures to stop encroachments within FTL, fencing off the boundary for protection of the lake, removal of existing construction & demolition waste and the temporary road, ensuring no sewage enters into the lake, and cleaning and dismantling of the private septic tanks within FTL area, among others.
Bum Rukn Uddaula is a historical lake at Shivarampally, constructed in 1770 by Nawab Rukn ud Daula, the prime minister of Third Nizam Sikandar Jah. It was mentioned as ‘Lalaram Cheruvu’ in the Government of India’s toposheets.
As per the 1975 toposheets, area of the lake is around 18.575 acres, within which encroachments came up as observed in the contour survey done by the Irrigation department.
The lake is listed among the 2,01,503 recognised wetlands in the country as mapped by the central government, which should be protected on the same principles as mentioned in the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010, as per a 2017 Supreme Court order.
