When forests fall and peacocks cry [Commentary]

Recent student protests at the University of Hyderabad over the clearing of 400 acres of forest by the Telangana government have drawn widespread public attention to the ecological damage and land loss caused by development projects.

In 2022, I participated in the U.S. Scholar Fulbright Program at the University of Hyderabad, focusing on Ph.D.-level research methods and theory seminars that used the campus as our classroom. During June and August of that year, my students and I traversed the campus’s vast expanse — observing its natural and biophysical environment, documenting and recording specific sites and occurrences, reading from philosophy and media literature, and engaging with ancient intellectual traditions as well as local and Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and living.

These walks deepened our connection to the campus’s bioregional ecology, including the 400 acres of forest and its waterbodies. As we continued our dialogues — reflecting on the readings, nature, and the environment — it became clear that the living presence of this landscape could not be ignored. What stood out was the long-standing effort to preserve the integrity of the university’s land from encroachment — an effort increasingly under threat in recent years under the banner of urban development.

Learning from nature

The campus treks began shortly after dawn, accompanied by the chirping of birds and the calls of peacocks. Along the way, we spotted a large family of wild boars, several bird species, tiny insects and creatures working in the soil, butterflies in various hues, and a flock of spotted deer.

As we trudged along, stopping to inspect the grass cover, plants, and shrubs, we read excerpts from the works of Donna Haraway, Manuel De Landa, John McPhee, Elizabeth Povinelli, Purushotham Reddy, Umamaheshwari, among others. These readings alerted us to the pitfalls of “forced universals” that often shape discussions on the environment and climate change. We pressed on, transecting wide swaths of the landscape that led us to Peacock and Buffalo Lakes — cheruvus in Telugu.

Walking further on, we paused at the exquisite rock formations and read Elizabeth Povinelli’s (1995) Do Rocks Listen? a piece that explores the role of indigenous and aboriginal knowledge and labour in shaping kinship with rocks and boulders. We also read extracts from John McPhee’s (1998) writings on “deep time” and Manuel De Landa’s (1997) reflections on the billions of years of earth’s mineralisation.

While our explorations of the campus’s bioregional ecology deepened our understanding of the natural and biophysical world — the web of connections between life forms and their environment, between boulders and rocks, waterbodies and wetlands, plants and insects — they also convinced us about the fragility of this habitat and its vital role in balancing and regulating climate-change-induced environmental shifts.

Environmental and climate scientists have long warned governments and politicians about the threat of climate disasters, visible from the increasingly erratic weather patterns. They point to extreme floods, droughts, heatwaves, and cold spells as clear signals of the dangers that lie ahead.

Meanwhile, humanities scholars and environmental historians emphasise the importance of protecting and preserving local and bioregional habitats. Over the past two decades, the university’s bioregion has borne the brunt of changes driven by IT-led urbanisation. During our 2022 campus treks, we documented several instances of land encroachment by private builders and the government through a series of short videos.

What’s forest and what’s not

Our worst fears materialised in mid-March 2025, when the Telangana government claimed ownership of the 400 acres in Kancha Gachibowli. Kancha — grazing land in the local vernacular — is revered by indigenous communities, who trace their lineage back centuries and regard it as sacred commons.

The government, however, has labelled the tract “Kancha Asthabal Poramboke Sarkari,” (government land) arguing that, as state property, it may be auctioned for development. Citing survey number 25, officials moved to legitimise the clearance of the land in preparation for auction.

The University of Hyderabad’s campus, spread over 2,300-plus acres with semi-forested cover, constitutes a unique bioregional habitat that supports a wide array of mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, and plant species.

According to scientists and environmentalists, clearing this forested landscape to construct concrete structures would lead to biodiversity and habitat loss, ecological imbalance, and far-reaching consequences for urban life — including increased flooding, rising temperatures, and worsening pollution.

The term forest cover is a generic descriptor that fails to capture the intricate ecosystem of biotic and abiotic forms thriving within the university’s expansive bioregional landscape. For forest ecologists and scientists, the site’s geomorphological features — its undulating terrain, ridges, valleys, hillocks, boulders, and rock formations — play a crucial role in shaping the soil and sustaining diverse life. These elements nurture bacteria, lichens, fungal networks, plants, shrubs, trees, insects, birds, and creatures both large and small. All exist in a dynamic relationship of metabolic mutualism, collectively influencing weather patterns and local climatic conditions.

Ecological violence and wailing peacocks

On Ugadi, March 30, 2025 — a day that marks the Telugu New Year and is widely celebrated across South India as the beginning of spring, symbolised by the blooming of plants, flowers, and agricultural fields — the Telangana government began clearing the 400 acres of forested university land, despite protests from students, faculty, and staff.

Two Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions were filed before the Telangana High Court, challenging the felling of trees and raising concerns about the damage to the region’s ecology. In response, the Supreme Court of India issued an interim order directing the Telangana state government to protect the university land.

Aerial drone footage captured the scale of eco-violence as bulldozers moved in like battle tanks, marauding through the land and uprooting trees. The piercing wails of frightened peacocks echoed through the scene, amplifying the gravity of the environmental destruction. In response, university students showed remarkable resilience and courage, staging civil disobedience protests despite intimidation and arrests.

Through social media platforms, the students successfully galvanised public attention. Telangana’s forest cover is shrinking at an alarming rate, with thousands of hectares already lost over the past decade to large-scale development projects.

What is required is a fundamental rethinking at multiple levels in navigating the critical junctures, particularly as developmental activities have expanded exponentially across India’s cities and hinterlands. The real estate boom, along with the proliferation of IT parks, data centres, and large-scale industries, is placing immense pressure on ecologically sensitive zones.

In Telangana, Indigenous populations — Adivasis, marginalised forest communities, as well as tenant and smallholder farmers — continue to bear the brunt of this ecological destruction. Unlike the wailing peacocks, whose distress has captured public attention, the cries of thousands of displaced people and the forcible seizure of their forest lands remain largely invisible, absent from the dominant narrative of urban-centred environmentalism.

Addressing these forms of socio-ecological and environmental injustice — so frequent in the hinterlands — is not only a policy necessity but an ethical and moral imperative.

Read more: Urban expansion drives forest loss in India’s biodiversity hotspots

Banner image: Telangana’s forest cover is shrinking at an alarming rate, with thousands of hectares already lost over the past decade to large-scale development projects. Image by special arrangement.