A 20-minute ride from bustling Mehdipatnam along the road to Cyber City in Madhapur, you get your first glimpse of the magnificent rock formations around Hyderabad. Perched on top of the Deccan Plateau of Hyderabad, and sculpted into their odd forms by erosion over millions of years, these spectacular rocks have become a tourist attraction and a popular trekkers’ trail.
Geologists say these rocks date back 2.5 billion years, to the time when the earth’s crust solidified and molten magma pushed upwards and hardened into domes and sheets of granite, leading to the formation of horizontal and vertical cracks. “Slowly, the top layers of the crust eroded and these very hard granites were exposed. They weathered over millions of years into the present forms,” says Narendra Luther, who founded the Society to Save Rocks in 1996.
But the rocks may not last very long. Many of them have been hacked away to feed the construction boom, especially in the Mehdipatnam to Madhapur stretch. The ones that survive are not much better off since they have become a haven for squatters.
The Society to Save Rocks, whose 300 members include well-known artists, photographers and environmentalists from the city, has been creating awareness among the general public and companies, especially in the real estate sector, about the need to save these natural wonders.
It has had some success in spreading the message so that many recent developments such as the University of Hyderabad and Indian School of Business campuses, the office of Computer Associates, and the Emaar Boulder Hill Golf and Country Club have not destroyed the rocks but made them a part of the design, or made them a part of landscaped rock gardens. The society has even succeeded in saving a rock cluster in the Lanco Hills project that was to have been destroyed, and another in the Wave Rock IT park at Gachibowli.
The society has have even made representations to the state government on the subject — which has had a mixed effect. The Andhra Pradesh government has notified Regulation No. 13 of the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority to do with the protection of heritage buildings and precincts.
The rocks have also been listed by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority as heritage sites “not be disturbed”. Rock formations located on and within 50 km of a construction site must be identified prior to construction, it stipulates. All formations on site must be “integrated into the building or landscape design wherever possible”, it says, adding that “If they have to be disturbed, prior permission from an accredited geologist has to be acquired.”
However, no action has been taken to protect these rocks. For instance, 50-year-old Narasimha Rao ekes out a living breaking and selling small blocks of the huge granite boulders at Nanakramguda. “I earn around Rs 100 a day by selling a square-foot of block for Rs 6.50 each. I am not aware of anything like conservation... this is the only work I know since childhood,” he says.
The HMDA has identified eight sites including the hillocks around Durgam Chervu and Rock Park, a hillock on Old Bombay Road, for preservation but the state government has not conducted any survey on the geographical spread or the number of rocks. The Society to Save Rocks conducted a survey a few years ago and found that there were 48 such rock clusters around Hyderabad and 12 in Medak district.
The rock formations in the neighbouring Medak district, which too come under the ambit of the HMDA have had a better fate, perhaps because they are greatly revered by the locals who imbue a spiritual meaning to the bizarre shapes — some like Lord Ganesha, some like a wolf or a turtle.
The rocky areas in the nearby Rampur village are a treasure trove of lush-green landscapes and sugarcane and sunflower crops, and hence made them one of the preferred destinations to which the tourists often flock.
