Anger on the banks of the Musi

Musi Riverfront Development Project: With the Telangana government ready to implement the project in Hyderabad, residents along the river are facing possible displacement and uncertainty over compensation. Once seasonal streams, the Moosa and Esi tributaries now flow with sewage and industrial effluents, raising questions about ecological restoration.

Thulasi Chandu, a journalist who runs her own YouTube channel, is one of the 417 occupants of the residential complex, Madhu Park Ridge, at Langar Houz. From her balcony, she gets a view of southern Hyderabad: the imposing 12th century Golconda Fort on one side and a sweeping view of greenery, which slowly gives way to a rising concrete jungle.

Down the slope of the plateau on which Madhu Park Ridge stands, the rivulet Moosa, a tributary of the Musi river, meanders through the landscape for 11.2 . Its course from the still-green Ananthagiri hills into Hyderabad is regulated by the Osman Sagar reservoir at the city’s edge, built after the catastrophic floods of 1908. On a closer look, however, what flows through Moosa is a dark, almost opaque stream of sewage and effluents discharged from surrounding establishments.

About 500 metres away, another stream, the Esi, flows from Himayat Sagar, another flood-control reservoir constructed after the floods.

These two rivulets merge a short distance further, and together with continuous downstream inflows of sewage and effluents through the city, they form the Musi, a seasonal river, which has become a sinuous channel of perennial pollution. From the Ananthagiri hills up to Wadapally village in Nalgonda, where it flows into the Krishna river, the Musi is 240-260 km long, with 55 km of it flowing through Hyderabad.

“The stench is unbearable and there are swarms of mosquitoes,” says Chandu. But neither is reason enough for her to leave her home, she insists.

Chandu is furious that the Telangana government is attempting to displace her and others along the stretch for its ambitious Musi Riverfront Development Project (MRDP). The government plans to turn the seasonal river into a perennial one, while developing leisure spaces and shopping areas, and reviving heritage structures along the banks. For people who have lived by the river for decades, however, this spells displacement.