By Matters India Reporter
Hyderabad: Poets, writers, environmentalists, social activists, academicians and others along with school children on September 28 marked the 110th anniversary of the flooding of Hyderabad.
The day was celebrated under the iconic tamarind tree that saved 150 people who clung on to its branches to escape the fury of the floods. It is located in the Osmania Hospital Campus.
The event was organized among others by Forum for Better Hyderabad, Deccan Heritage Trust, Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights (CHATRI) and Montfort Social Institute.
Several people eulogized the tree that saved the lives and pledged to make the city livable for all.
Montfort Brother Varghese Theckanath, director of Montfort Social Institute and founder of CHATRI, recalled the contribution of the working classes in re-building the city after the floods, and called on the planners and decision makers to ensure inclusion, participation and sustainability as cardinal principles of the development of city. ‘Musi and the City’ published by Montfort Social Institute was released on the occasion.
The devastating flood in 1908 had killed 15,000 people besides destroying thousands of houses and flattening the many bridges that connected the southern and northern parts of the city as well as many iconic buildings.
General Michael O’Dawyer who was the British representative in Hyderabad, saved the city from an even greater disaster, by blocking the breach that had occurred in the Jeedimetla lake.
More than 200 of more than 700 water bodies had breached in the three days of incessant rains leading to the floods. The Nizam government called on the services of Vishwesariah, the eminent engineer, to rebuild the city and make it flood proof. The most important contributions he made to the city include the Osman Sagar reservoir to prevent flooding and the underground drainage system that is still the mainstay of Hyderabad.
General O’Dawyer was the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab from 1912 until 1919. He endorsed General Reginald Dyer’s action regarding the Jallianwallah massacre and termed it a “correct action.”