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.
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| Rock structure at Ghar-e-Mubarak, near Golconda Fort |
Hyderabad is blessed with so many such structures and clusters of rock formations.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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