A 'rocky patch' for Hyderabad's Rock structures

Hyderabad has a defining characteristic. No, I'm not talking Biryani, but the famed rock structures that dot this city. Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills are perhaps as popular as Charminar. One can find a series of undulating terrains and rocky structures not just in these localities, but pretty much throughout the city.

These charming structures would pause anyone in their tracks and make the people wonder as to how they've managed to achieve the unique balance.

Rock structure at Ghar-e-Mubarak, near Golconda Fort

Hyderabad is blessed with so many such structures and clusters of rock formations.

Rocks at BITS, Hyd (Pic: Shailesh Jain)	Balancing boulders (Pic: TribuneIndia)

The sad part of the story is that the city is fast losing these landmarks. As Hyderabad keeps getting more attractive as an investment destination and the land value goes through the roof across the city, the first casualties are these structures.

Before (A patch of land near my office)	... and After

Its a common sight to see an entire rock hillock get levelled to further commercial interests.

Check out this hillock..	..and the work in progress to level it

Khajaguda, an adventure enthusiasts favourite, and a second home to my club, GHAC (Great Hyderabad Adventure Club) is at the verge of getting wiped out. This place has hundreds of acres of fascinating rock structures. Unfortunately, this has not been spared as well, and over half of this place has already been blasted to dust.

GHAC bouldering event at Khajaguda

There are some good souls fighting for the rocks. There is the 'Save Rocks Soceity', a 20 year old organization that has been taking up the cause of rocks, and has also got few of the sites declared as heritage-rock-sites by the government, to bring them under a protective umbrella. They do a lot of awareness campaigns and events like the famed 'Hyderabad Rockathon' in partnership with GHAC.

Unfortunately, this is too little and needs more public support, financial muscle and support from the power corridors to really save Hyderabad's most popular landmarks, which are perhaps more historic than the Charminar. After all, rocks take a few thousand years to form and they are now going through a mass extinction - great structures blasted & levelled in a few seconds.

Hyderabad Rockathon 2015

Last weekend was special, with GHAC's annual flagship event 'Rockathon'. True to its name, this is a fun outdoor event themed on rocks. In its 4th annual edition, this event has become quite popular over the years with kids and nature-outdoor enthusiasts in Hyderabad. Conducted at Ghar-e-Mubarak, close to the Golconda fort, this was co-hosted by the Hyderabad-based 'Society to save rocks', a uniqe organization that does great work in identifying and protecting the rocks by getting them declared as heritage sites.

Having heard quite a bit about this event, this was my first time and I took my family and friends along. With both my kids under-age as per the event guidelines, and with one of them young-enough and pushed around in a pram, we sure turned lots of heads around! It was a packed, fun-filled day with several activities lined up. 

We started with slack-lining, the fine art of balancing yourself and walking on a rope, the only saving grace being that the rope was tied at just 1 foot height. With adults struggling at this, the kids seemed to pick it up and do naturally; perhaps their natural instincts for outdoors are not urbanized fully yet. Rock-stacking involved creating the tallest structure by stacking up small rocks and pebbles. This provided a sneak-peak into the fascinating rock structures one sees in the city and how they could be balancing each other. And yes, our group did win a prize by building one of the tallest ones!

Slack-lining	Trail biking
Rock-stacking	...and a natural stack in formation

The treasure hunt themed around hunting for the right rock formations as given in a picture proved daunting, especially in the hot midday sun. There were several creative activities to the event's credit: rock shotput, trail-biking around the rocky terrain, a quiz to test knowledge on rocks & rock structures, and even a rock selfie contest! There was a lot of demand for zip-lining and rapelling, that was planned well and organized safely in the midst of the adjoining rocky hills. The event was complete with a workshop on snakes awareness, conducted by the popular Hyderabad-based 'Friends of Snakes' society. They demonstrated handling of non-poisonous and poisonous snakes, and provided useful tips and first-aid basics. With kids quickly developing comfort with snakes, they rushed in to touch and handle one of the less aggressive, non-poisonous varieties.

The green, tree snake	An extra-long rat snake

During the event, it was a pleasant surprise to bump into the 13-year old girl who holds world-records for climbing several tall peaks around the world, Jaahnavi. It was fascinating to learn from her father-and-guide on how Jaahnavi Sriperambuduru  started early, has persevered to set records and also about her #Mission7summit, the upcoming mission to climb all highest peaks in the 7 Continents. Wishing her luck, we signed off from the event.

Edit: Corrected typo in Jahnavi's name.