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Hindustan Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Kancha Gachibowli tree felling move was pre-planned: SC questions Telangana govt
The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Telangana government on why the largescale tree felling in Hyderabad's Kancha Gachibowli carried out in a 'rush' over a long holiday weekend. 'If it was a bona fide exercise, why not wait until Monday?' a bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih asked, while reviewing the Telangana government's affidavit on the bulldozing of roughly 100 acres of forest land near the Hyderabad Central University campus. 'You took advantage of a long weekend. Bulldozers were deployed. The activity was clearly pre-planned,' the court said. The court reiterated that it supports sustainable development and warned that if the forest is not restored, senior state officials, including the chief secretary, may face temporary imprisonment, a warning the bench has issued in previous hearings as well. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the Telangana government, however, told the court that all tree felling activity in the area was stopped completely. Also Read: Telangana transfers IAS officer who reposted AI image of Kancha Gachibowli land In its affidavit filed before the court, the Telangana government also said the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, which is overseeing the master plan for the area, was prioritising the conservation of ecologically and historically significant landmarks and non-exempt trees in the development area. The petitioner's counsel, however, pointed out that even as the court was pulling the state up for deforestation, the latter continued to defend its actions and had gone on to confirm in its affidavit that it was still committed to developing the disputed area. The Supreme Court then reminded the state it will be liable to contempt proceedings if it did not restore the damaged forest area. 'We are putting you on guard. You are trying to defend such a thing,' the court said. 'Did you have environment clearance? If you want, we will serve for contempt. It is better you take a decision to restore the forest,' the court said. Singhvi however, submitted that 'huge plantation and reforestation' activity was already being undertaken by the state in the area. The Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the issue on April 3 following citizen protests and media reports of the sudden clearing of forest land. It had ordered an immediate halt to all deforestation and excavation activities and directed site inspections by both the Telangana High Court Registrar (Judicial) and the Central Empowered Committee (CEC). While the state has maintained that the 400-acre plot has never been classified as forest land, the CEC noted that the ownership is contested. Historical records, it said, indicate that the land originally vested with the University of Hyderabad under a conditional Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). In its report, the CEC also noted that a ₹10,000 crore mortgage deed for the land had been registered with a private party on March 24, and the clearing began just three days later. The report described the clearing as an 'undue haste' aimed at preempting forest classification. According to the report, the CEC's site visit revealed that over 1,500 trees were uprooted using heavy machinery. 1,399 of such trees, the state has claimed, came under the exempted categories and hence, no prior permission was required for their felling. The razed area included moderately to heavily dense forest and even a notified lake, the CEC said. The report also flagged a threat to the habitat of at least eight endangered or threatened species. The Supreme Court will hear the matter next on July 23.
Indian Express
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Opinion Rahul Gandhi's call to pass Rohith Vemula Act is welcome but its effectiveness in creating a more equitable social environment will depend on the details
On January 17, 2016, Rohith Vemula — a scholar who loved the stars and wanted to become a writer like Carl Sagan — died by suicide on the Hyderabad Central University campus. His death stirred up a mass movement that brought into sharp focus the rampant institutionalised casteism within Indian academia. According to the IC3 institute reports, more than 13,000 students die by suicide annually in India. This number, most likely much higher due to under-reporting of such events, is still just the tip of the iceberg. Suicide is the most extreme step that a student often considers as the only way when all other measures to cope fail. Most of them try to absorb the trauma, resulting in mental health issues, declining confidence and performance, self-harm or dropping out altogether. At the core of this issue lies the attitude of academic administrators and professors who mistake piling on pressure, and often abuse, on students as a praxis of 'rigour'. Mostly, any talk of softness and empathy is dismissed as 'weakness'. Sociologically, this attitude towards learning stems from the tradition of guru-shishya Parampara. In this framework, the 'guru' is all-knowing and is usually never wrong, while the 'shishya' can only learn through 'pariksha' or an ever-intensifying series of challenges and tests. Ostensibly, absorbing such principles, higher education becomes a journey where the students are constantly forced to prove that they are worthy enough for the institutions to teach them. In a caste-ridden society like India, this is a dangerous framework for higher-education institutions (HEIs). Due to centuries of exclusion, thousands of castes in the country do not have the privilege of intergenerational literacy or formalised learning traditions. Such a society needs an empathetic framework of upskilling and educating its masses. In its absence, structurally, we are bound to end up with a deeply alienating system where most former students remember their learning years as a period of discomfort and trauma, not one of joy and discovery. Against this backdrop, Rahul Gandhi's request to the chief ministers of the three Congress-ruled states — Telangana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh — to enact a 'Rohith Vemula Act' aimed at dealing with the caste discrimination in HEIs is a welcome move. While details of the legislation are yet to be clear, it appears each state will have its own version with some common pointers: Marking the denial to admission or amenities to the SC/ST/OBC students or demanding money from them as cognisable offences; provisions for financial compensation in the case of student suicides, etc. While these are well-thought-out provisions, the effectiveness of such a bill in creating a more inclusive and equitable social environment will depend on the details of the legislation. After all, caste discrimination and humiliation are multifaceted and embedded in a variety of social behaviours, rituals and policies. Addressing them requires more than a token law and a compensation promise. First, Indian HEIs have historically been known for evading accountability and rendering complaint cells impotent by staffing them with pliant personnel and friendly external interlocutors whose primary motivation seems to be safeguarding institutional reputation. The law must be mindful of this and provide for a time-bound, transparent and independent complaint redressal mechanism. Second, while sensitisation has been mandated on ragging and gender safety, no Indian HEI, in all likelihood, takes similar initiatives to sensitise students on caste. This is an extremely important step as most Indian schools end up incepting students with a deep resentment towards caste-based affirmative action due to differential admission cut-offs for most HEIs. No mandated intervention counters this by explaining affirmative action principles, making a data-driven case for caste diversity and addressing the importance of bringing marginalised caste groups to higher education institutions for national capacity-building. Third, beyond complaints and sensitisation, the structural composition of caste within academia also needs to be addressed. There is no better buffer against brazen casteism than bringing on board a higher proportion of SC/ST/OBC faculty within the administration. Presently, most public institutions flout reservation mandates in hiring, while private HEIs have inexplicably been given a free rein in this regard. As a result, the administrative bodies responsible for policy in these institutions are thoroughly dominated by 'upper castes'. If the Rohith Vemula Act is to make a real difference, it needs to address this caste imbalance. Lastly, the act would also need to outline clear punitive measures against institutions that violate the mandates. These measures must be severe, such as revocation of recognition and rankings, heavy fines and criminal charges against the administrations, with a commitment from the state to enforce the same. Without this, the inactivity of these administrations on caste matters will not be shaken.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Yahoo
Footage shows elephant herd in Sri Lanka, not southern India
"After the government demolished their home... the family of elephants in Hyderabad set out in search of a new home," read a Hindi-language caption to the video shared on Facebook on April 7, 2025. The footage depicts a large herd of elephants crossing farmland bisected by a road. Hindi-language text overlaid on the video read, "You snatched their home, one day you shall suffer. The elephant family left Hyderabad". The video circulated with similar claims on X and Instagram as students spearheaded protests against the Telangana State government for clearing parts of the 400-acre (161-hectare) Kancha Gachibowli -- forested land which borders Hyderabad Central University (HCU) -- to set up IT parks in the southern city (archived link). Police detained at least 50 students on March 30, who were later released. Local media outlet NDTV reported the Supreme Court issued a stay order on the tree-felling on April 3, with a hearing set later in the month (archived links here and here). Meanwhile, local media Telangana Today reported at least three spotted deer were found dead on the university campus within the week following the clearing of the adjoining forest (archived link). But the footage of the elephants was filmed in Sri Lanka, not India. A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video found a longer version of the footage shared in an X post on February 20, 2025 (archived link). The video is captioned, "When the paddy harvest is over. The elephant crowd came to the paddy field." It included hashtags for Sri Lanka, "Malwatta" and "Ambara", suggesting the footage was shot in the island nation neighbouring India. Malwatta is a rural village in the Ampara district in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka (archived link). Subsequent keyword searches on Google found similar images in a report published in Sri Lankan media outlet The Sunday Times on February 23 (archived link). The report said elephants were spotted crossing the Ampara-Kalmunai main road, heading towards cultivated areas. The footage used in the false posts corresponds to Google Street View imagery of the Samanthurai area of Ampara district in Sri Lanka (archived link). Hyderabad is not typically home to wild elephants, though a stray elephant had trampled a farmer to death in a different district in Telangana in April 2024 after crossing over from a neighbouring state, authorities said (archived link). AFP has fact-checked other claims linked to the forest clearing incident here and here.
