The Telangana government recently invited bids to help develop and monetize 400 acres of land overlapping the University of Hyderabad campus, now part of the city’s Central Business District.
Students of the University of Hyderabad staged a protest against the Telangana government’s decision to auction off nearly 400 acres of ecologically rich land overlapping with their campus on March 13. The land comprises prime real estate, situated in the Financial District area, an extension of Hyderabad’s IT corridor and what now forms the city’s Central Business District (CBD).
The Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) plans to develop and auction the land, which came back into the state government’s possession only last year after a prolonged court battle. The agency has since invited bids for a consultant to design a master plan and assist with auctioning the land, to monetise it and raise resources for the state government.
The University of Hyderabad Students’ Union called the protest at ‘mushroom rock’, one of the unique rock formations that falls under the land to be put up for auction. Students, residents, and environmental and climate activists say the land parcel is an important carbon sink for the city, with varied species of plants, birds, and even vulnerable animal species.
Arguing that auctioning the land for industrial or commercial use will harm the biodiversity of the region, a petition has been floated on the platform Change.org asking the government to withdraw the auction plan. It has garnered nearly 22,000 signatures in two days.
The protest on the UoH campus on March 10 too saw participation from scores of students, faculty members, non-teaching staff, as well as residents of surrounding areas.
UoH Students’ Union President Umesh Ambedkar listed the student body’s demands and said, “We want the state government to halt the land auction process, and set up a review committee to study the biodiversity of these lands and their ecological significance. We also want the government to grant legal rights to UoH over the land.”
Background
UoH, a Central University, was established in 1974. While the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government allotted 2,324 acres of land for the university campus in 1975, the Telangana High Court has observed in the past that there is no documented proof of the land transfer.
In 2004, the university signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the then Chandrababu Naidu government to give away 534 acres of land to a private firm called IMG Academies to develop sports facilities. The subsequent Congress government led by YS Rajasekhara Reddy cancelled the allotment, seeking to reclaim the 850 acres of land.
This was challenged in court, and after nearly 20 years, the Telangana High Court ruled in favour of the state government in March 2024. The 400 acres of land that TGIIC now wants to develop and auction, which falls under Kancha Gachibowli village of Serilingamapally mandal in Ranga Reddy district, is part of these repossessed lands.
According to TGIIC’s call for bids for a consultant, some of the tentative components of land development include commercial and residental buildings, public parks, walkways, cycling trails, heritage and culture based eco-parks, green areas/landscaping programming, and amenity zones.
Environmental significance
Students say that the land, which includes the ‘mushroom rock’ in the university’s east campus, holds immense academic, environmental, and cultural significance.
According to Vennela, president of UoH’s Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), “The land in question is home to nearly 734 species of plants, 220 species of birds and two lakes – Peacock lake and Buffalo lake – that sustain our biodiversity.” The campus also has endangered species such as Indian star tortoise, which is listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“If this land is auctioned off, we will see irreversible damage to our ecosystem which will only worsen the city’s air pollution, heat waves and ecological imbalance,” said Vennela.
A statement from the Students’ Union Called the Revanth Reddy government’s move to auction the land “a betrayal of public education and environmental preservation.”
Nihad Sulaiman, general secretary of the UoH Students’ Union, referred to a recently published Greenpeace India report on nitrogen dioxide pollution in major Indian cities, which found that in Hyderabad, in 2023, the annual NO2 concentrations were highest at the University of Hyderabad monitoring station. Vehicular traffic is one of the main sources of nitrogen dioxide pollution.
“In 2023, daily NO2 concentrations were higher than the WHO (World Health Organisation) daily guideline at the Central University Hyderabad station for over 80% of the year”, the report said.
While March 15 is the laste date for the bids for the master plan consultant, there is apprehension among the students as bulldozers were spotted around the contested areas over the past couple of days.
“As long as the government declines to cancel the auction, protestors will continue to demonstrate, determined to resist what they see as an attack against public education and the preservation of the environment,” a statement from ASA said.
