Accepted abstract, IGYS-2022
Authors: Chi. Susant Radha, Kum. Nidhi Nair, Chi. Krrish Singh
11th Standard, Army Public School, Golconda, Hyderabad
The Andhra Pradesh (now divided into Telangana) government’s decision to convert all water bodies covering less than 10 hectares of land to residential and commercial zones has led to the extinction of more than 3,000 water bodies in Hyderabad, Telangana from the 1990s to mid-2000s. While the government’s move saw a real estate boom in the mid-2000s, water bodies numbered to mere 185 within Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits. (Source: Deccan Chronicle)
We selected the South West region of Hyderabad for our study. We visited the selected lakes in Hyderabad : Osman Sagar lake, Himayat Sagar lake, Katora House lake and Langar Houz talab and checked the ongoing construction and previously established housing societies and took some photographs of the site.
We collected satellite images of the following lakes through Google Earth platform and compared it with 1985 satellite images using time lapse to check the transformation near the lake area .
We measured the current dimensions of the lake through Google Earth. We demarcated by using the method given below: for a lake having 5 km perimeter the buffer zone taken is 2.5 km radius. This helped us in studying the risk assessment of the disaster prone zones of the low lying areas of the lake which can lead to overflowing of the lake waters and submergence of households in its close proximity; e.g.: The Langar House Talab overflowed in 2020 during heavy downpour and affected many households within its 1 km radius.
