Hyderabad: Blasting boulders & rocks causes irreversible change, say experts

HYDERABAD: In view of multiple construction activities leading to indiscriminate breaking of rocks and boulders that are the mainstay of Hyderabad’s geology, experts said that the architects should design projects around these boulders without disturbing the natural formations.
In the most recent incident on Friday, a major disaster was averted after two boulders rolled down from a construction site and damaged a portion of a house in Chandanagar. Last year too, four houses adjoining each other in Hyderabad’s Ghouse Nagar were destroyed after large boulders had fallen on the asbestos sheet that covered the roof, bringing the whole place down. In all, there have been about five such incidents in the last two years.
“These boulders are more than 2,500 million years old and people should know that any disturbance to these natural formations can lead to landslides resulting in loss of property and life, apart from causing an irreversible change in the landscape. Therefore, to avoid any kind catastrophic damage to the land or the people, we must ensure that the projects, both government and private, should be designed around these natural formations,” said Syed Yousuf of Society to Save Rocks, an organisation working to impress upon landowners, developers and the government that the boulders could be preserved in houses, gardens, colonies and park areas.
Experts also said that for anyone in the construction business, it is important to remember that Hyderabad rocks are not monolithic rocks, but they are boulders sitting one top of the other, which can cause major destruction even if a small portion is disturbed.
Speaking about how disturbing the soil profile can lead to landslides, architect Srinivas Murthy, said, “If you look at these boulders, they are so beautifully composed and sitting for millions of years and they never fell. But when you try to destroy these boulders, you also tend to disturb the soil profile which will cause landslides. It is always best not to touch these natural creations.”
However, in certain unavoidable circumstances where the boulder or a rock really needs to be removed, he said that all necessary precautions need to be taken by calculating the total load of the boulder to see in which direction the load is getting transferred and balance it with huge concrete girders to avoid any unforeseen incidents.