Gopi Did you know that when the crucial permission to "allow 2 floors of construction over riding the previous no-permanant-structures-shall-be-allowed in botanical gardens" was given, our A Raja, ie spectrum Raja was the minister of environment and forests
Raja's Tenure as minister of environment and forests: May 23, 2004 to May 17, 2007
This is when most of the damaging permissions and decisions on botanical gardens were taken.
over 2 years ago

Kalyan This is an amazing accomplishment, Kudos to citizen's who worked for this cause.

over 2 years ago

Gopi Gopi Krishna marked this issue as fixed.
over 2 years ago

Gopi Jairam Ramesh ordered stopping of construction activity in botanical gardens and withdrawed environmental clearance given to the project

Citizen Activism Works! Kudos to all the citizens and specifically, the residents of SLN springs who fought relentlessly against the illegal project

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/environment-ministry-withdraws-clearance-to-andhra-tourism-project/articleshow/7676680.cms

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Jairam-stops--eco-tourism--project-in-Andhra/760937/
over 2 years ago

Gopi Thanks to the efforts of people involved with botanical gardens bachao (esp people from SLN Lumbini) the citizens case was presented to the officials. Some of the salient points:
a. Citizens conveyed in very clear terms that they want the project to be scrapped as it is doing harm to the forest area.
b. We are objecting to the project not just as people residing in the neighborhood, but as citizens of India who want law of the land to prevail and forest area conserved and not "given away" for massive commercialization in the name of eco-tourism
Request everybody to share this and vote for the issue as this will help us in garnering support. (officials noted both the citizensocial as well as facebook page)
c. Citizens also conveyed to the officials that they will take care of planting the trees themselves if required
d. They expressed thorough dissatisfaction at the developer going ahead and cutting thousands of trees despite the court giving a stay order. It seems a contempt case is being filed.
e. It seems the report will go upto Jairam Ramesh, our progressive Environment and Forests Minister

Request others to add anything else that I have missed
over 2 years ago

Gopi message from jagadish:
We are happy to inform you that based on our representation, The Chief Conservator of Forests, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Regional Office, Bangalore is coming to Botanical Gardens to investigate the violations and deforestation going on in our neighborhood.

We need to represent our case in this hearing strongly. Hence we request everyone to gather in large numbers tomorrow i.e. on 29th Dec at 11.00 AM at Lumbini SLN Springs Club House. Please pass on this message to all like minded citizens who are willing to fight for saving the Botanical Gardens with a request to join at the Club House.

Regards

Jagdish
over 2 years ago

gopi RTI response of GHMC published in times of india @
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/GHMC-tells-MLA-to-cough-up-Rs-3L-for-building-plan-info/articleshow/7101738.cms
over 2 years ago

sanghamitra The Botanical Garden must be preserved as a garden with various types of plants, trees and flowering plants adorning the garden.This plan of the authorities to build a convention centre, a hotel and various other structures should be totally squashed and no construction work should be permitted.Hyderabadis, please rise to the occasion and save the Botanical Garden from vanishing!!!
over 2 years ago

sujatha Our politicians / bearocrats are enough corrupt. Save atleast the environment please...
over 2 years ago

gopi GHMC has asked 2,39,249/- for giving RTI response to Hon MLA !
In another report, it has asked for 84,460

http://www.citizensocial.com/uploads/issues/654622540d94764dff9aeef2770e152ecf1391f0.pdf
over 2 years ago

Gopi Protest against destruction of Botanical Gardens at the Hyderabad 10k on 28th November
Folks living near Kondapur can join the group from SLN Lumbini Springs at 5.30AM and board buses (max capacity - 200, first come first serve).
Folks coming from other parts of the city can join at 6.30AM at People's Plaza. Can identify the group from the posters, banners and t-shirts.
Folks will walk in solidarity at the 10k event and will try to get attention to our cause.
over 2 years ago

hari Meeting for "Save Botanical Gardens" tonite 7:30PM at Lumbini SLN Springs ClubHouse, Gachibowli (on gachibowli-kondapur main road).
Pl inform your friends.
over 2 years ago

Gopi From: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ncs-group-to-tiefunds-for-botanical-gardens-soon/344870/

Hyderabad-based NCS Group will achieve financial closure for its Botanical Gardens project by March 2009. The Rs 200crore project is coming up in the forest reserve land at Kondapur here and is being executed in public-private partnership with the Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation...

Speaking to Business Standard, group managing director N Nageswara Rao said in Phase I the garden would be developed in 18 sectors spread over 120 acre. It would have about 5,000 species of plants, including several varieties sourced from botanical gardens across the world.
over 2 years ago

Gopi http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article905179.ece
over 2 years ago

Prts Its amazing how the government can approve of this. How these money minting business people get all such ideas. Am sure a lot of politicians and officers got paid off a lot for this approval. Shame! I have heard a lot about what will come up there....1. a prospective amusement park...2. state of the art apartments and houses. 3. Commercial complexes...4.Soem five star hotel !!! I mean i heard that something of the scale of Disney is on the cards! I cannot express how fuming mad Iam. Are they out of their minds! This is a botanical garden....why cant they leave it as it is.
All these officials want to make money....am telling you people....unless there's noise from the common citizen... the size of Hiroshima....nobody is going to do anything about it!!!!
over 2 years ago

Gopi It will be very sad if we cannot protect this. I looked into the facebook page for this, but it looks like there is no activity since 2 weeks. Do we know how to go about finding the information for this.

This page can act as a signature collection mechanism as only registered users can ask for "I want this fixed".

Also, I couldnt see any update in the RTI activity. Lets hope some information comes out of it. RTI itself is a painfully slow process as they can take 30 days.
over 2 years ago