The Telangana High Court on Wednesday ordered a halt to the ongoing work on 400 acres in Kancha Gachibowli near the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) till Thursday.
The court gave the interim order while hearing the Public Interest Litigations filed by HCU students and the Vata Foundation.
The court took up the PILs for hearing on Wednesday. While adjourning the hearing to Thursday, the court directed the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) to stop all work.
The counsels for petitioners sought a stay on the works, saying the TGICC was cutting the trees by using several bulldozers.
The petitioners submitted to the court that the government in June last year issued a Government Order, allotting 400 acres of government land to the TGIIC. They argued that even if this is government land, the authorities concerned have to follow the Supreme Court orders. The court was told that heavy vehicles were being used to uproot trees and to level the ground.
The counsels for the petitioners contended that as per the Supreme Court order, a committee of experts has to be constituted to remove trees from a forested land. If the land inhabited by wildlife is to be levelled, an expert committee has to visit that place and study it for a month.
The petitioners told the court that the land has three lakes, several rocks, and many species of animals and birds, and they need to be protected. The court was told that authorities were acting against the Supreme Court guidelines, and for the last few days, a tense situation has been prevailing there.
Appearing on behalf of the state government, Advocate General Sudershan Reddy informed the court that the land was allotted to the IMG Academy in 2004 and since the company did not utilise the land as per the agreement, the then government cancelled the allotment.
The Advocate General argued that it’s not forest land, noting that high-rise buildings were constructed on HCU lands adjacent to this land, and they also have four helipads. He stated that several areas in Hyderabad have snakes, peacocks, and trees, and if one goes by the argument of the petitioners, these areas also have to be declared forests.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the division bench of the High Court headed by Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul directed that the ongoing works be stopped till Thursday.
Vata Foundation, an NGO working for environmental conservation, sought deemed forest status to the land and demanded that it be declared as a national park under Section 35 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act.
The petitioner’s counsel also submitted to the court that the HCU campus had all the features of biodiversity hotspots and was ecologically sensitive as recognised by the Supreme Court for conferment of deemed forest status in the Godavarman case.
The university students launched a protest recently after the TGIIC began the work to clear the land of trees and rocks for its auction for the development of IT parks.
