TELANGANA

HISTORY

Telangana, situated in the central stretch of the Indian Peninsula on the Deccan Plateau, is the 29th state of India and twelfth-largest state in the country witd an extent of 114,840 square kilometres and a population of 35,286,757 (2011 census).

Telangana is bordered by the states of Andhra Pradesh to the south and east, Maharashtra to the north and north-west, Karnataka to the west and Chhattisgarh to the north-east.

The city of Hyderabad is the joint capital for Telangana and the successor state of Andhra Pradesh for the period of ten years.

Hyderabad, Warangal, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Khammam are the major cities in the state.

The region is drained by two major rivers, with about 79% of the Godavari River catchment area and about 69% of the Krishna River catchment area, but most of the land is arid.Telangana is also drained by several minor rivers such as the Bhima, the Manjira and the Musi.

The annual rainfall is between 900 to 1500 mm in northern Telangana and 700 to 900 mm in southern Telangana, from the southwest monsoons. Various soil types abound, including chalkas, red sandy soils, dubbas, deep red loamy soils, and very deep b.c. soils that facilitate planting mangoes, oranges and flowers

IRRIGATION PROFILE OF RANGA REDDY DISTRICT

  Introduction

Ranga Reddy District lies between 16º-30' & 18º-20' Latitude and 77º -30' & 79º -30' Longitude. It is bounded on North by Medak District, South by Mahabubnagar District, East by Nalgonda District and West by Bidar District of Karnataka State. The District Head Quarters is at Hyderabad.

  Topography And Drainage

The District is mostly hilly and scarcely wooded. It exhibits undulatory to ridged and some places have plane topography. The general slopes of the land are from West to East and South East. The Rajkonda hills range runs south eastern direction in Ibrahimpatnam area up to Deverkonda Mandal in Nalgonda District. The Ananthagiri hill range travels the District from south in Mahabubnagar District to Marpally in the North. Isolated hills and hill ranges are also present in the District. The major river in the District is Musi which rises in the Ananthagiri hill and flows to the East. Another river Kagna drains covering number of villages in Vikarabad and Tandur areas. The major soils of the district may be categorized into red earth comprising of loamy soil, sandy loam and sandy clay loams. The red earth

covers over 70% of area. The red and block soils comprising clay loams, clays and silty clays covers about 20% of the area. The remaining 10% of the area is occupied by mixed soils. The district lies in the following river basins.

Sl.No

Name of the Basin % of area covered

1 Krishna 95%

2 Godavari 5%

There are 4 Sub-basins in the Ranga Reddy District

K-6 Kagana Sub-basin of Krishna Basin. K-7 Lower Krishna Sub-basin of Krishna Basin. K-10 Musi Sub-basin of Krishna Basin. G-4 Manjeera Sub-basin of Godavari Basin

MedchalMedchal is a northern suburb of Hyderabad, India.[1] It used be a suburban village and one of the largest mandals in Rangareddy district of Telangana, India.[2] The total population of Medchal is 35,611 according to census 2011.

Pedda Cheruvu, located in Medchal, is listed with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority’s (HMDA) Lake Protection Committee. The lake was surveyed in 2013 and according to that report, the water spread area is about one and a half acre, full tank level area is 356 acres and its bund length is 1,200 metres. 

 

It is 30 km away from Secunderabad Railway Station and 45 km from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The lake was once used to provide water for agriculture and allied activities and was a source of drinking water. The lake attracted migratory birds in the winter. 

History

According to locals, this is the largest lake in the mandal consisting 18 villages including the Medchal village. Hence it is popularly known as Pedda Cheruvu. It is said that the lake has been in existence since the Nizam’s Era. 

 

Fishermen derived their wherewithal from the lake as it housed different kinds of fish. Some forty years ago, fish rearing ponds were constructed. But they have been abandoned since two decades. This is due to two reasons: one, the depleting level of water in the lake; two, the inlets being blocked for the construction of the Outer Ring Road and for other government projects. 

Problems

The lake is dried up due to scarcity of rainfall. It has assumed the look of a small kunta where water has been left to stagnate.  The HMDA has adopted the lake area under an urban forestry scheme to maintain ecological balance. Ravi, a local fisherman, said that their community has lost livelihood as there is no water in the lake and hence no fish.

Mission Kakatiya

Mission Kakatiya with tagline ( Mana Ooru Mana Cheruvu[2]) is a program of restoring all the tanks and lakes in Telangana State, India.The Program was inaugurated on 12 March 2015 by chief minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao.[3] The name 'Mission Kakatiya' is given in the remembrance and tribute to the Kakatiya rulers who developed large number of the irrigation tanks.

IMPORTANCE OF THE TANKS IN THE STATE.Tanks have been the life line of Telangana owing to the state's geographical positioning. The people of the

state are highly dependent on the tanks which are spread across all the 10 districts. The topography and

rainfall pattern in Telangana have made tank irrigation an ideal type of irrigation by storing and regulating

water flow for agricultural use.

Construction of tanks in Telangana has been an age old activity since pre Satavahana era. During the Kakatiya

era, the construction of tanks was carried out with utmost technical expertise. Tanks such as Ramappa,

Pakhala, Laknavaram, Ghanapuram, Bayyaram which were built by Kakatiyas resemble seas and they greatly

helped agriculture and overall development and prosperity of the Kakatiya kingdom.

This vision and legacy of Kakatiyas were carried forward by Qutubshahis and Asafjahis who ruled this region

for centuries. Hundreds of big and small tanks were built in Telangana region during their rule. Government

desires to uphold the vision of Kakatiyas which envisages revival and restoration of Minor Irrigation Sources

in Telangana State.

Tank irrigation has huge bearing on generation of rural employment, poverty reduction and agricultural

growth. The sheer size of command area under tank irrigation makes it a large center of agricultural

production and provides a critical opportunity for commercial agriculture through market linkages.

IRRIGATION POLICY OF THE COMBINED STATE OF A.P

Infact, the A.P. irrigation policy, at the instance of Andhra leadership coming from Coastal Andhra, has given

rise to uneven development. It emphasized on the major irrigation, whereas the alluvial plains irrigated by

the tanks have remained largely insignificant. This irrigation policy resulted in the destruction of age-old

water conservation systems with chains of tank networks. The successive Governments successfully ignored

the maintenance and development of tanks and allowed them to face extinction by way of siltation, breaches,

encroachments etc. With the extinction of tank system, the self-sufficient villages of Telangana have become

drought prone areas.

Today the drought is manifested in every facet of human life and it is particularly so with the rural poor. The

exodus of people from rural areas of Telangana to Hyderabad and other far off places has made their lives

vulnerable. This has also proliferated the squatter settlements and slums in the urban areas. The Krishna,

Godavari, Musi and Manjira rivers traverse through the semi-arid lands of Telangana districts especially

Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar. But large quantities of water

from these rivers are diverted to subsist the industrial, drinking and other needs of Hyderabad and irrigation

needs of Andhra. Otherwise, these rivers would have sufficed and satiated the water needs of these districts.

Irrigation policies of A.P. exposed the true colours of regional bias and machinations to promote their

interests.

This continuous and policy based discrimination in Irrigation Sector turned Telangana Region into a

graveyard of farmers and land of migration. Self-sustained villages of Telangana have become drought prone

villages. 80 % farmer suicides that occurred in AP state were from Telangana region and millions of people

from 10 Telangana districts migrated to far off places like Mumbai, Bhivandi, Surat, Ahmedabad and Gulf

countries as laborers in search of livelihood. 16 lakh population from Mahaboobnagar district alone migrated

to far off places. Hence, exploitation of water resources has been one of the major concerns of Telangana

movement and people strongly felt that creation of a new state of Telangana, that is, state power alone would

fetch them water.

Realizing the importance of reclamation of tanks for growth in the state, the Government of Telangana State

has taken up the programme of restoring the minor irrigation sources under the title Mission Kakatiya (Mana

Ooru Mana Cheruvu). The mission aims at retrieving the lost glory of minor irrigation in the state with

community participation for ensuring sustainable water security.

In July 2014 Irrigation Department, Govt of Telangana has carried out for the first time, the census of Minor Irrigation sources in Telangana, which include M.I tanks constructed and maintained by Irrigation Dept., M.I