The park, with its typical Deccan flora and fauna, had been left undisturbed for most of the time and in 1994 was notified as a national park. Now, Hyderabad’s royal family is negotiating with a leading hotel chain group keen on making a 7-star hotel out of the Chiran Palace. And this would mean that part of the park would be taken up for the purpose.
So, there was nothing unusual in seeing a large number of environmentalists making a mad rush for the park and protesting the move to destroy the habitat of the national park. It forms Hyderabad’s main green lung today. Naidu has, meanwhile, reassured the environmentalist lobby, saying they have nothing to fear—there would be no multi-storeyed housing complexes, only cottage-style rooms that will blend in with the environment. According to some of Naidu’s cabinet colleagues, the chief minister is now hell-bent on proving that information technology is not his only concern, and that he’s equally determined to bring ‘state-of-the-art everything’ to his state, particularly its capital. Formula One is part of that plan. The chief minister believes bringing the motor sport to Hyderabad will change the face of the city and would put it on the prestigious world Formula One map.
