Supreme Court Halts 400-Acre Tree Felling in Telangana’s Kancha Gachibowli Forest

For days, the University of Hyderabad campus in Telangana looked like a conflict zone. A large troop of police, deployed by the State government, tackled students protesting the destruction of an adjacent 400-acre urban “forest” in the Kancha Gachibowli village, Rangareddy district.

The face-off between the students and the State Congress government began early last month when news reports emerged that the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) had been given the green flag to develop and auction this biodiverse land parcel. In fact, the land once belonged to the university, and was once a grazing land (“kancha” is the Telugu word for grazing land). Protesters pointed out that the project would claim a rare patch of green cover in the city.

But after relentless campaigning by students (many of whom were lathi charged and even detained), teachers, and civil society, the Supreme Court, on April 3, took suo moto cognisance of the matter and directed the Chief Secretary of Telangana to ensure that “no tree felling” takes place. The court asked the Chief Secretary to file answers on “the compelling urgency to undertake this developmental activity;” and whether the State had conducted an environmental impact assessment. It added that no activity is permitted, besides the “protection of trees already existing,” until further orders. The Chief Secretary would be held liable for any violations, the Supreme Court added.

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But the destruction of this green cover has already been devastating. By mid-march, earthmovers began digging up the plot, and on March 30, dozens of bulldozers converged on the site. Despite the public outcry and student protests, tree felling continued. While an official assessment of the destruction is yet to take place, “A preliminary estimate that several of us have arrived at is that over 10,000 trees of the over 17,700 trees in the 400-acre parcel have already been cut,” said Sai Krishna, a GIS analyst.

Haven to 220 species of birds

Save City Forest, a collective of citizens, nature lovers, and university alumni, has also been working relentlessly to save Kancha Gachibowli. It has found documentation indicating that this urban jungle is habitat to over 734 species of flowering plants, 10 species of mammals, 15 species of reptiles, and 220 species of birds. The collective said that the “dangerous and unsustainable trajectory [of] continued destruction of natural ecosystems will lead to severe water crisis, poor air quality, rising temperatures, ultimately making living in Rangareddy district, particularly Gachibowli, unliveable for future generations.”

As their protests against the erasure of the forest appeared to turn futile, the student union filed a PIL petition in the High Court, and the civil society groups filed two PIL petitions. During the hearing of two PIL petitions filed to halt the destruction of Kancha Gachibowli, the Telangana High Court on April 2 orally directed the government to stop the tree felling. But shrubs continued to being burnt, and earthmovers felled trees.

The University of Hyderabad Teachers Association organised a protest on April 2, and demanded that the State government withdraw all police and stop the destruction of green cover. They also demanded that the forested area be declared a bio-heritage reserve.

A day earlier, a 14-member civil society delegation met the Deputy Chief Minister and other ministers to discuss the importance of preserving the Kancha Gachibowli forest. But to no avail. “The fact that the destruction continues shows the government’s disregard for the environment,” Kiran Kumar Vissa, a member of the delegation, said. Vissa listed several violations of the government, including the lack of an environmental impact assessment, the violation of the Telangana Water, Land and Trees Act, and the Wildlife Protection Act.

Decades-old ecosystem

In 2004, the 400-acre parcel, which was part of the university land till then, was allocated to a private party (IMG Academies Pvt Ltd) for the development of a sports academy. After a two-decade-long court battle, the land was taken back by the government of Telangana in 2024. The government then decided to hand it over to TGIIC for development and auction.

This expansive urban ecosystem of shrubs, trees, and lakes that attracts several species of birds and animals does not confine itself to survey numbers and revenue boundaries and sprawls across the university campus, and belongs to the government of Telangana. It is thus the contention of students and civil society that the disruption of a portion of this decades-old ecosystem would have a cascading effect on the biodiversity of the area. Environmentalists, students, and civil society have thus termed this area “Kancha Gachibowli Forest” and are demanding that a “forest” status be given to it.

“While it is true that this parcel was grazing land at one point, it is also true that it has now become a forest. It is also a water sink in a heavily concretised area. Instead of planting new trees elsewhere, which would take decades to get into this shape, the government should protect what’s existing. There are provisions available to declare this as a forest area,” Donthi Narasimha Reddy, a public policy expert, told Frontline.

‘Investment worth Rs.50,000 crore’

In June 2024, the government issued a Government Order (GO) sanctioning the alienation of the 400 acres of Kancha Gachibowli government land in favour of TGIIC, advance possession of land to TGIIC, and waiving off stamp duty. The GO stated that TGIIC would develop and auction this land for “IT and mixed-use” at Rs.75 crores per acre (market value).

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The Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy announced that the development of Kancha Gachibowli would facilitate “Rs.50,000 crore” worth investments and “five lakh jobs”. There are no publicly available reports or data to back these repeated assertions from the government.

“But where is the master plan? Why is a map of the demarcated 400-acre land not in the public domain? What’s this hurry to develop this particular site?” asked environmental and urban activist Lubna Sarwath, a Congress party member. Moreover, the clearing of the forest began without even an environmental impact assessment or an environmental management plan for its biodiversity.

Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has demanded that the Telangana Forest Department provide a detailed account of the clearing of Kancha Gachibowli land and also directed it to take appropriate action under the Indian Forest Act, Wildlife Protection Act, and the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam.

The Supreme Court has listed the matter for April 16.