AP: Urbanisation will eat away lakes by 2030

HYDERABAD: The NGO SOUL (Save Our Urban Lakes) celebrated its annual day on Sunday. For the past one year, SOUL has been working to protect lakes around the city like Patel Cheruvu, Shah Hatem Talab and Hussain Sagar. The function started with a mime performance on the topic Save Our Water by renowned theatre group Koshis. Later, Naram Krishna Raju, Balaswamy, KL Vyas, Bhaskar Reddy were felicitated by the chief guest Rama Lakshmi, director general, AP Forest Academy and Centre for Forest and Natural Resources Management(CEFNARM).Prof KS Rajan of IIIT, Hyderabad gave a lecture on ‘Land use intensification- Are water bodies being squeezed out?’. “There has been massive urbanisation in the past decade. According to the draft master plan made by the government back in 1989, the population numbers expected by 2020 were crossed in 2006. The lakes have been the victim of this massive urbanization. Lakes have been encroached upon by land mafia. At this rate, by 2030 there will be no lakes present in and around Hyderabad,” he said.“There are lot of people working to save the lakes independently. But SOUL provides a common platform where everyone can connect and support each other,” said SOUL convener Jasveen Jairath. Our main aim is to bring like-minded people together and act on these issues. “In the past one year, our membership has increased to 500,” Jairath said.