Forests for Sale

A raging fight over 400 acres of scrub forest reveals the Congress-led Telangana government’s conflicted vision for Hyderabad’s future.

Telangana

On the western fringes of Hyderabad, an unassuming patch of green in the fast-expanding Financial District has become the site of a tense standoff. Kancha Gachibowli, a 400-acre urban forest adjoining the University of Hyderabad (UoH), is rich in biodiversity, rocky outcrops and controversy. As the Congress-led Telangana government pushes to auction the land to private developers in a bid to bolster its IT economy, students, faculty and civil society have rallied to protect what they call the city’s “last lung space.” While the state sees real estate gold, Hyderabad’s citizens see ecological heritage.

The government claims that transforming this forested tract into an IT park could net up to Rs. 50,000 crore in investments and create half a million jobs. Already, the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation has drawn up plans, promising to preserve landmark rock formations like the ‘Mushroom Rock’ as green pockets amid glass-and-concrete towers.

But the resistance is equally firm. The land, though never officially notified as a forest, forms part of the larger ecological envelope of the UoH campus. It is home to myriad species of birds, reptiles and mammals. Environmentalists and academics argue that losing this space would deal a fatal blow to Hyderabad’s fragile urban ecology. Urban forests such as Kancha Gachibowli regulate microclimates, sequester carbon and offer respite in a city where heatwaves and water scarcity are fast becoming the norm.

The matter has now escalated to the Supreme Court, which has directed a halt to all deforestation and development activities, and ordered a central empowered committee to inspect the site. The state’s refusal to allow UoH faculty and students to conduct an independent ecological damage assessment before the central team’s visit has only deepened mistrust. The ministers involved argue they are bound by the court’s directives. Protestors see it as yet another attempt to suppress scrutiny.

Adding to the friction is the heavy police presence on campus, with prohibitory orders in place and cases filed against protestors. Two students remain in custody. Far from defusing the situation, the Congress government has adopted the coercive playbook of its predecessors: criminalise dissent, delay dialogue, and hide behind procedure.

The irony is thick. This is the same Congress party that, in opposition, castigated the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government for its opaque land deals and lopsided development. Now in power, it appears to have inherited not just the furniture but also the worst instincts of its forerunners.

When the University of Hyderabad was established in 1974, it was allocated 2,300 acres. Over the years, successive governments have chipped away at that parcel - first for a telephone exchange, then a bus depot, a sports stadium, and even an IIT campus. The 400 acres at Kancha Gachibowli were handed over to a private sports firm in 2003, reclaimed in 2006 after non-utilisation, and have been in legal limbo since. The Supreme Court has reaffirmed the state government’s ownership, but the lack of proper demarcation and the absence of forest notification has left the land in a legal and ecological grey zone.

The Telangana government would do well to consider a more nuanced approach. Rather than treating the 400 acres as dead capital, it could embrace a vision of inclusive urban planning that balances economic ambitions with ecological imperatives. Designating Kancha Gachibowli as a protected urban forest, opening it up for educational and ecological tourism, and integrating it into the broader developmental plan of the city could offer a compromise that respects both growth and green.

In the battle for Kancha Gachibowli, the stakes go beyond Hyderabad’s skyline. They touch upon how India’s cities imagine their future - whether as concrete jungles chasing capital, or as liveable spaces that cherish their natural inheritance. Politically, the episode is fast turning into a litmus test for the Congress government. If it squanders public trust for short-term real estate windfalls, it will only hasten its own political erosion.