Ameenpur lake, located in the metropolitan area limits of Hyderabad with a number of industrial units nearby, has been designated a biodiversity heritage site.

A major attraction for admirers of birds, particularly the majestic flamingos, is the first water body in the country to get such a status.

Sustained campaign

According to Tejdeep Kaur Menon, Director General, Telangana State Special Protection Force (TSSPF), this is the fruition of a sustained effort begun early in 2015 to save the 93.15-acre lake with a series of clean-up campaigns in and around the lake.

Following a nod by State Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao for the tag, State Principal Secretary BR Meena notified it as a Biodiversity Heritage Site.

Officers and men of TSSPF had been collecting and disposing garbage from the lake environs even before it was taken up for formal adoption on August 7, 2015.

Apart from helping to protect the lake and its biodiversity, the tag will also help protect it from encroachments and make it eligible for funding.

Birds’ paradise

A variety of local and migratory birds, including egrets, herons, cormorants, kingfishers and river terns, throng the lake and make it an attractive destination for people and for photographers — amateur and professional.

TSSPF has adopted the Ameenpur village, and with the help of residents initiated a garbage disposal system in cooperation with the authorities of Medak district.

Apart from protecting the lake from pollutants, the Force also turned to the State Pollution Control Board for its support to check effluents and set up a sewerage treatment plant with funds provided by the industries in the vicinity of the lake.

TSSPF also planted over 4,000 saplings in the dry tracts of the lake bed and on its fringes.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW