Musi floods: a page from past

September 28, 1908 still sends shivers down the spine of many Hyderabadis

 Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place. This is true of the great Musi floods of 1908. In retrospect the tragedy that cut a swathe of death and destruction this day 111 years ago, proved to be the precursor to progress. In fact it led to the planned development of Hyderabad.

Osmansagar and Himayatsagar, the twin principal reservoirs that still serve the city, are the result of the floods. Not just this. The disaster also led to the birth of a great poet, Amjad Hyderabadi.

The master of Rubaiyat (quatrains), as he is known, saw his mother, wife and daughter get washed away in the gushing waters right before his eyes. But he lived to write the famous poem titled ‘Qayamat-e-Soghra’ (The Minor Doomsday). The heart-rending nazm captures in vivid detail the havoc wrought by the deluge.

Wo raat ka sannata wo ghanghore ghatain

Barish ki lagatar jhadi, sard hawain

Girna wo makanon ka, wo cheeqon ki sadain

Wo mangna har ek ka ro-ro ke duain

(The sepulchral silence of night, the sinister clouds

The unrelenting rain, the freezing winds

The uprooting of houses, the screaming sounds

Praying with teary eyes, anguished minds)

About his own miraculous escape from the jaws of death, Amjad wrote sarcastically:

Itni darya main bhi na duba Amjad

Dubne walon ko bus ek chullu kafi hai

(In this deluge also Amjad couldn’t drown

Whilst a handful of water is enough to sink many)

Like many others, who survived the floods, Amjad didn’t rot, but chose to grow. He didn’t quit, rather chose to persevere. The calamity gave a cutting edge to his poetry, deepened his thoughts and broadened his perspective of life. Every dark cloud sure has a silver lining to it.

September 28, 1908. The day still sends shivers down the spine of many Hyderabadis. Others might swing to the Hollywood musical hit ‘Come September’, but Hyderabadis dread the very month and call it ‘sitamgar’ (tormentor). They have seen how ‘Everything wrong gonna be alright’, has not come true in their case.

Statistics show that the city experienced wettest spells during September in 1994, 2000, 2009 and earlier. When the Bell 430 helicopter carrying former Chief Minister, YS Rajashekhar Reddy, crashed into the Nallamala forest due to torrential rains and inclement weather it was September 2, 2009.

What Happened?

What exactly led to the 1908 floods? Theories abound but the report of engineering wizard, Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, says the flood was the result of bursting of several irrigation tanks due to an unusually heavy precipitation over an extensive area. There is no record of the intensity of the downpour but it was ‘exceptionally heavy rain’, everyone agrees. The rain ‘descended in sheet, flooded small tanks and overburdened their waste weirs’.

A sharp shower and drizzle set in motion the catastrophic events on Saturday, September 26. A heavy burst occurred during the night and continued till next morning. Rainfall of 6 inches was recorded. The first serious warning was sounded in the early hours of Monday, at 2 am to be precise, when water flowed over the Puranapul and breached the city rampart wall on the western side. By 6 am, the water level rose alarmingly to 10 feet and touched the crown arch of Afzal bridge along Kolsawadi, the place where the Osmania General Hospital now stands. The skies enacted a day long catharsis and the demon wind howled evil oaths at a huddling population holding on to dear life. Like an one-eyed monster, the water swirled and pulsated and the flood level rose by the hour. In just three hours, the water rose to a height of 16 ft, overtopping the parapet walls of Puranapul, Muslimjungpul, Chaderghat and Afzal bridge. The latter disappeared without a ripple.

When tamarind tree turned saviour

The day after the deluge, the city presented a picture of devastated homes, uprooted trees, floating corpses and carcasses. About 2,000 persons were washed away in Kolsawadi alone while an equal number died at Ghansi Bazar. Thousands were rendered homeless by the flood which inundated large parts of the walled city. The flood fury was such that it swept away nearly 50 localities and claimed about 50,000 lives. Many people climbed atop the city wall near Petla Burj to save their lives while some sought refuge on the hoary tamarind tree situated in the Osmania General Hospital. A plaque put up here says: “This tree saved 150 lives.”

Come September 28 and this tree becomes the focal point where concerned citizens gather to recall the tragic events and pay homage to those who survived the tragedy. Floods in the Musi battered the city not once but eleven times. The 1908 flood, however, remains the deadliest one.

Moved by the devastation, the sixth Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, rode out to see the havoc personally. He ordered the palace doors to be thrown open for the grieving people. About six lakh displaced persons were fed from the communal kitchens for several days.

The 7th Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, who succeeded his father in 1911, built the Osman Sagar, popularly known as Gandipet, in 1920 by damming the Musi river. In 1927 he built the Himayat Sagar on Esi, a tributary of Musi river. These reservoirs were constructed on the suggestion of Sir Visvesvaraya as a flood control measure. The Nizam also set up the City Improvement Board (CIB) called ‘Aaraish-e-Balda’ in 1914 for development of Hyderabad in a planned and phased manner.

Hyderabad flooding, according to experts, is the result of unchecked urbanisation leading to increase in impervious areas. This leads to significant increase in the rate of runoff. And this in turn overwhelms the designed capacity of the storm water drainage system. Today the city seems to have reverted back to the conditions prevailing at the time of Musi floods in 1908. A mere cloudburst is enough to inundate it. The flash floods of 2000 shows that the authorities have not learnt any lessons. Haphazard construction and encroachment of lakes and nalas continues with impunity. No wonder the civic apparatus falls like ninepins every time it rains.

J.S.Ifthekhar,

Hyderabad based journalist.

Article published in Telangana Today

Dated September 29,2019