Gujarat Hardlook: A lakeside in hot water— the story of Ahmedabad’s Chandola Lake, where over 4,000 structures were razed in post-Pahalgam demolition drive

Straddling the two worlds of Danilimda, a predominantly Muslim settlement, and the Hindu-dominated Isanpur, the lake shores have served as a home to vegetable vendors, casual labourers, scrap dealers and barbers, among others, who ended up building their hutments and shops in the area as the city expanded.

The area before the demolitions (Express/Bhupendra Rana)

In the crosshairs of the authorities for a long time, the area has seen occasional demolition drives to weed out suspected illegal Bangladeshi nationals.

However, nothing prepared the residents for what followed after the terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.

On April 26, in a drive that kicked off at 3am, 890 people, including 219 women and 214 children, were picked up from Danilimda side of Chandola Lake on suspicion of being “foreign immigrants residing illegally” in the city. They were first assembled at the football ground in Kankaria after which most of the men were paraded through the roads of Ahmedabad for four kilometres until they reached Gaekwad Haveli – another historically relevant address that now serves as the Crime Branch headquarters —in Jamalpur.

Pre-cast walls being put up by AMC (Express/Bhupendra Rana)

Though a majority were let off after their Indian identity was confirmed, the relief was short-lived as bulldozers started lining up outside the area on the night of April 28. On April 29, the bulldozers began their work. As many as 4,000 structures, including both homes and shops, were razed, as claimed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

A brief history

In the British period, Chandola Lake was meant to carry the waters of the Khari River that flows from Raipur village on the city’s outskirts, through the Kharicut canal, which was built in 1881, to irrigate the paddy fields around it. For years, though, these channels have been clogged. The lake, which only fills up during excess rainfall, is split into three sections — two Nana (small) and the Mota (large) Chandola, the larger section drying up to form mudflats in summer.

Over the years, as encroachments began coming up, the area came to be known as Chandola talav na chhapra. A section of the slum, known as ‘Bangladeshi basti’ or Bangalivaas, has been of particular interest to the police and seen minor crackdowns. In October last year, the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Ahmedabad City Police rounded up 48 suspected illegal Bangladeshis from this slum and “deported” them. The action was repeated on 16 illegal Bangladeshis in February this year.

Flattened in three days

On April 29, AMC’s 74 bulldozers closed in on Chandola Lake and, with the help of 200 trucks, cleared up 1.5 lakh square metres of land — more than the original target of 1.25 lakh square metres as Municipal Commissioner Banchha Nidhi Pani had told The Indian Express.

By May 1, the day the three-day demolition exercise concluded, only 200 of 890 people detained from the area had been confirmed as “ghuspaithiye” or illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, as DCP Crime Ajit Rajian told The Indian Express, with the caveat that document verification remained underway. Those confirmed as Bangladeshis were shifted to the Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC), inaugurated in October last year, where they await deportation.

While Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghavi, has described this entire operation as a “historic victory” for the Gujarat Police, Ahmedabad’s Commissioner of Police G S Malik said everyone staying in that area was a “land grabber”. On April 29, the morning when the JCBs began flattening the lakeside, the Gujarat High Court dismissed a petition by some residents of Chandola basti seeking a stay on the demolitions. Chandola lake is a water body where no construction could be permitted, the court noted.

Most of these structures were modest dwellings – a mix of thatched-roof and asbestos-roof structures – with only a quarter being brick and mortar constructions.

On May 2, AMC began putting up precast boundary walls along the cleared portion of the lakebed strewn with post-demolition debris, remains of household goods, and filth.

A senior AMC official tells The Indian Express, “First, we removed all the illegal encroachment by Bangladeshis where anti-social activities were taking place. Now, while the rubble from the demolitions is being cleared, a boundary wall is being constructed to complete the consolidation of the cleared-up space so that it is not encroached upon once again.”

The official says now a survey on the work done thus far would be conducted. “We are exploring several options, but demolitions will be done in the future after giving notices to local residents,” the official adds.

According to a statement from AMC on Friday, “In Phase-II, the police department and the AMC will jointly continue to remove encroachments in and around Mota and Nana Chandola lakes. A survey has been initiated for the same. The electricity connections of the illegal residences have been ordered to be cut immediately. Different government departments will serve notices to these residents. Those who don’t vacate voluntarily will be booked as land grabbers by the Revenue Department.”

My son has just given his Class 10 examinations. My electric meter was removed without informing us, and when my husband Dinesh was away at work
Rekha Aud, a resident

The statement makes it clear that the whole-of-government doctrine that the Gujarat government used for gang violence on the streets in March, using everything in its regulatory arsenal and its various arms — police, civic body, electricity discoms, water supply department, and so on — to clamp down on the accused, was extended to the Chandola Lake. In the area, The Indian Express learnt, power supply was cut off on April 28, a day before the demolitions began. By April 30, several electricity meters had been taken away.

‘We are Indians’

The Chandola Lake area begins at the road level. But as one starts walking onwards, into the settlements, it starts sloping down for several hundred metres until the lake is reached. The basti is cramped and congested with barely enough space for one police vehicle to pass through.

Nestled in one such bylanes, next to Suryanagar police chowki of the Isanpur side of the lake, amid various temples, are residences of people who claimed they were “neither Pakistanis, nor Bangladeshis” and were yet evicted with less than two hours’ notice and barely any time to collect their belongings.

First they demolished my house; so we brought all our belongings here (to our scrap shops). They came and took that away as well. Where do we go now?
Gauri Ramesh Dantani, a resident

While acknowledging that there was encroachment on the lake, they claimed they have been living in the area for generations and deserve getting a notice in advance and “an alternate place to sleep.”

Though AMC insisted it had removed encroachments of only Bangladeshi nationals, scrap dealers on the main road – the focus of Day 2 of the drive — tell another story.

Gauri Ramesh Dantani, who lost both her house and shop, says she has lived here with her family for more than “three generations” and that her ancestors once used the now-defunct well situated on the small island in the lake. “First, they demolished my house adjoining Bangalivaas; so, we brought all our belongings here (to our scrap shops). They came and took that away as well. Where do we go now?”

Chhagan Chauhan, a 48-year-old vegetable vendor, says, “I have been living here since I was seven.” He adds, “They (terrorists) killed 26 people, and we are also very sad about it…The government can take action on Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, we will not protest… but we are Indians, we have not done anything to anyone.” Chhagan claims his family moved to this side of the lake “after the 1985 communal riots”. During the 2002 riots, he claims his family moved out for a month.

Kailashben Jaiswal from Ayodhya says, “On April 30, they began disconnecting our electricity and stopped only when we all gathered in protest. They can demolish everything but our only request is that they give us some time…”

Among the residents who lost the electricity connection are Vijay and Sheetal Dantania, who live in a one-room house. One of their three children is a special needs child. Holding her youngest, a six-month-old infant at her hip, Sheetal says “the government” cut their power and pulled out their electric meter from its box on April 30. Vijay showed the electricity bill in his name to prove he was a paying customer.

Rekha Aud, whose son Hitesh had recently appeared for Class 10 Board examinations, says that on April 30, her electric meter was removed without informing her even as she was inside the house. Her husband Dinesh, a casual labourer, says he has proof that their electric connection was legal.

An elderly woman with her belongings (Express/Bhupendra Rana)

National security angle

Following the April 26 crackdown, police have lodged only one FIR in the case and arrested alleged slumlord Lalu Pathan alias Lalu Bihari from Rajasthan who, they claimed, was instrumental in Bangladeshi nationals settling in the area. Around 100 properties belonging to him were also demolished.

One argument by Minister Sanghavi to justify the crackdown at Chandola was that four men had been arrested from here in 2022 for being part of a sleeper cell of Al Qaeda.

In an affidavit before the HC, the Gujarat government listed out a range of “criminal activities” in this area.

The affidavit signed by DCP Rajian says, “Over time, the lake came to be used for a variety of illegalities, including harbouring Bangladeshi aliens and other anti-national elements…It is also stated for the record that, recently, four Bangladeshi immigrants belonging to an al-Qaeda module having links to Chandola Lake were also arrested.”

Meanwhile, activists claim that the parading of Indian citizens was illegal and while they were trying to help those picked from their homes, the government went ahead and “bulldozed its way through” Chandola Lake even as encroachments continue in several other lakes.

According to an AMC document accessed by The Indian Express, a total of 37 of 171 lakes in Ahmedabad remain under encroachment.

Redevelopment, resettlement

Chandola lakeside has remained a sore point for years with plans to redevelop it never actually taking off.

The AMC budget for 2025-26 says that waterfront development will take place on the lakes, specifically mentioning that encroachers will be resettled. “There is a need to rehabilitate those living in the untenable areas of lakes,” it adds. It further states, “There are about 10,000 kutcha and pucca houses in and around the various lakes. They will be integrated into the PMAY -2 project… A total of 4,000 residences will be built at a cost of Rs 600 crore.”

There has been no word on the resettlement since.

What next

Speaking on the plans to fill the lake, an AMC officer says, “Chandola Lake is not just about demolitions. It is about development… we are thinking about how to put some water into the lake.”

According to the officer, “We will require 5,000 to 6,000 million litres. We are exploring whether this water can be brought from the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Pirana.”

Officials admit that the demolition is not the end of their problem as those evicted were moving to other parts of the city. A senior AMC official admits that this was a problem that had been set forth for consideration but there is no solution yet in sight.

On further demolitions, the official says, “We have to still clear the encroachment on the lake bed but first, we have to conduct a survey of how much work has been completed and how much is yet to be done. We are exploring several options but demolitions will be done in the future after giving locals notices.”

Notices are usually given under Section 122(1) of the Gujarat Town Planning Act, and refer to the slum rehabilitation policy of the state government. However, with no timely notice allegedly being given to anyone whose homes and businesses were destroyed in the April 29-May 1 drive, it is not clear yet whether the rules of resettlement would apply to these recently displaced people or not.

Meanwhile, Chhagan, the vegetable vendor, says a few officials came to his area on Sunday and said the 500-metre settlement between Jogani Mata Mandir and Dashama Mata Mandir inside would be cleared starting Monday, 10am. “No survey, no notice. They just told us,” Chhagan shrugs as he gathers his belongings. “We have nowhere to go.”