Razing The Grass
- KBR national park (390 acres) is bigger than London’s Hyde Park and 610 meters above sea-level
- It boasts of 600 species of trees, 15 kinds of mammals and reptiles and 100 species of bird
- Plans are afoot to fell 3,100 trees to make way for 8-lane flyovers at a cost of Rs 21,000 crore
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The 23-month-old state of Telangana has been gift-wrapped on arrival with a lot of infrastructure project announcements and the phrase “global smart city” is used a lot. But it’s the state government’s Strategic Road Development project—planning flyovers, skyways and elevated corridors across Hyderabad at a cost of Rs 21,000 crore—that has run into candle-lit protests.
In the first phase, the project will substantially affect the lush-green Kasu Brahmananda Reddy Park—a protected forest. Visitors to the KBR Park are allowed only into 140 acres. Just over one-tenth of...
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