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Save Musi Movement Save Musi Movement
The RiverWhat?Why?How?

Photos

The river, the people, and the work. Photographs from the Musi and from the movement.

On the bank
Six young volunteers in masks and work gloves stand together on the riverbank, several giving a thumbs up.
Six people, one Sunday, one stretch of bank. The work starts here. The Musi, November 2024
Volunteers hold a Save Musi River banner behind rows of full rubbish bags they have collected.
One morning of picking. Everything here came off the bank. The Musi, November 2024
A long line of young volunteers stands across the grass beside the river, with a bridge behind them.
The line at the start of a clean up, before anyone gets muddy. Hyderabad, March 2026
Two volunteers hold open a blue Save Musi River banner on a stony riverbank.
The banner reads Save Musi River, in English and in Telugu. The Musi, November 2024
A volunteer in gloves holds open a sack while standing among waste under a road bridge.
A sack, a pair of gloves, and a morning. That is the whole kit. The Musi, November 2024
A volunteer in a yellow raincoat bends down to pick waste from rubble beside a wall.
Bent over the rubble, lifting out what does not belong there. The Musi, November 2024
Four volunteers in masks stand on the riverbank holding green bags of collected waste, a bridge behind them.
Green bags full, bridge behind, river still running. The Musi, November 2024
A wide view of volunteers spread along the riverbank with bags, palms and a bridge in the distance.
The bank is wider than it looks. So is the job. The Musi, November 2024
Full rubbish bags lie on the grass beside the river while a line of volunteers stands behind them.
What one group carried off one bank in one morning. The Musi, November 2024
Speaking out
A person stands beside a government riverfront rendering projected onto a bare wall at night.
They project the picture on the wall. Then they answer it. Hyderabad, February 2026
A projected riverfront rendering lights a bare wall while someone walks past it at night.
The render says this looks nice. The next slide says what it costs. Hyderabad, February 2026
Handwritten letters on brown paper, one reading Say no to Demolitions, another addressed to a national leader.
Letters written by hand, by the families who live along the river. Hyderabad, March 2026
A woman holds a pink placard reading Don't Kill Musi in front of a wall covered in pinned notes.
Behind her, a wall of notes. Every one of them from a neighbour. Hyderabad, March 2026
Two women hold up a pink handmade placard reading Don't Kill Musi outdoors.
Two people, one piece of card, one clear sentence. Hyderabad, March 2026
Men stand at a table on a stage with a microphone while an audience listens in front of them.
A public meeting, of the kind the river plan never held. Hyderabad, March 2026
Residents stand together in a lane at night, listening at a neighbourhood meeting.
The meeting happens where people live, after the day's work is done. Hyderabad, February 2026
Women stand and talk together in a lane at night during a neighbourhood meeting.
Nobody had to travel. The meeting came to the street. Hyderabad, February 2026
A group of women stand close together at night, listening at a neighbourhood meeting.
The people who will lose the most are the ones asking the questions. Hyderabad, February 2026
A crowd of residents gathers under trees at night, a woman in yellow standing at the front.
A crowd gathers under the trees, close to the water. Hyderabad, February 2026
A person holds up a portable speaker on a stand at an outdoor evening gathering.
One speaker on a pole. That is the sound system. Hyderabad, February 2026
Residents stand in a loose circle in a lane at night, listening to someone speak.
Mostly this work is listening, in a circle, in the dark. Hyderabad, February 2026
People sit on the floor of a hall watching a presentation on a screen about the river.
A room, a projector, and the plan read out loud. Hyderabad, April 2026
How we organise
A hand holds four round blue Save Musi badges against a checked shirt.
Four badges, still warm from the press. Hyderabad, April 2026
A hand holds up round blue Save Musi badges, ready to be handed out.
You get one when you join. That is the whole ceremony. Hyderabad, April 2026
The river as it is
Birds rise in a flock over green riverbank trees while white foam floats on the water below.
The birds are still here. So is the foam. The Musi, November 2024
A wide lake at dusk with the city skyline as a dark outline on the far shore.
Upstream, at dusk, before the city gets to the water. Hyderabad, November 2024
Plastic bags and wrappers float on black water beside grass on the riverbank.
This is the water a river is supposed to carry. The Musi, November 2024
A riverbank strewn with waste, with palms and a road bridge in the background.
The bank between the palms and the bridge, as it is now. The Musi, November 2024
The river splits into shallow channels around weedy islands, with a bridge in the distance.
The river finds its own way around what has been dumped in it. The Musi, November 2024
Water spills over a low weir, covered in white foam, with a walkway crossing above it.
White foam over the weir. That is not clean water moving fast. The Musi, November 2024
A curved road runs beside a reservoir with a low stone wall and painted marker posts.
The reservoir road, above the city and above the sewage. Hyderabad, November 2024
A calm green reservoir stretches toward low hills under a pale sky.
Hills, water, and a line of fishing nets. Upstream still works. Hyderabad, November 2024
Concrete bridge piers stand over the river while thick green weed covers the water below.
Weed thick enough to walk on, under a bridge people cross daily. The Musi, November 2024
Waste is piled along a lake shore in the evening with lights on the far bank.
The shore collects what the city sends down to it. Hyderabad, November 2024
Children sit on the grass by the river while cattle graze near rubble and a road bridge.
Children sit where the plan draws a road. The Musi, November 2024
A woman in a safety vest sweeps a narrow lane between high walls with a long broom.
The lanes get swept every morning by someone the plan never asked. Hyderabad, November 2024
Wooden fishing boats rest in shallow water while people stand waist deep beside them.
People still fish here. A concrete bed ends that. Telangana, November 2024
People wade beside moored fishing boats in calm water at first light.
Boats out at first light, the way they have always been. Telangana, November 2024
A close view of shallow water running over coarse brown silt and small stones.
Silt, stones, moving water. This is how a river cleans itself. The Musi, November 2024
Plastic waste is caught deep in green undergrowth on the riverbank.
The plants hold on to it. Nothing else takes it away. The Musi, November 2024
A narrow channel of dark water runs between banks packed with plastic waste.
A drain, not a river. The plan does not change this. The Musi, November 2024
A wide view of the riverbank with waste along the edge and a low bridge crossing behind.
Stand back and the whole stretch looks like this. The Musi, November 2024
The river runs shallow past a green bank while a bridge crosses in the distance.
Shallow water, green bank, a bridge. Worth keeping. The Musi, November 2024
A wide sheet of water is covered edge to edge in bright green algae.
Green from bank to bank. That colour is a warning. Suryapet, Telangana
Three people stand talking on a weir crossing while foamy water runs past below.
Standing on the crossing, watching what runs under it. Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad
The river in the morning haze with boats moored along a far bank of green fields.
Downstream in the morning, where the fields still drink from it. Telangana, November 2024
Shallow river water runs quickly around clumps of weed and rock in the morning.
Moving water, doing the work it has always done. Telangana, November 2024
A person stands on a stone embankment above a wide rocky riverbed at dusk.
Far downstream, where the Musi is heading for the Krishna. Nalgonda, Telangana
Jammu, October 2025

These photographs are from Jammu, not from the Musi. A river held in concrete behaves the same way everywhere the water rises.

A wrecked car sits in dried mud on a road beside damaged buildings in Jammu.
The mud dried around the car and left it where it stopped. Jammu, October 2025
A small group of people stand on a wide gravel riverbank in Jammu with hills behind.
Where the flood spread out, once there was nowhere else to go. Jammu, October 2025
The inside of a house in Jammu with silt on the floor and furniture thrown against a wall.
A room in Jammu after the water left. The silt stays. Jammu, October 2025
A person walks along a damaged concrete barrage in Jammu, sandbags piled on the deck.
Walking a barrage that the river went through, not over. Jammu, October 2025
Sections of a concrete barrage in Jammu lie collapsed into brown water.
Concrete does not bend. When the water wins, it breaks. Jammu, October 2025
A collapsed concrete barrage in Jammu at dusk with the river running through the gap.
The river took the gap and kept it. Jammu, October 2025
A hillside village in Jammu and Kashmir buried under boulders and landslide debris.
Upstream in the hills, the same storm, a different kind of loss. Jammu and Kashmir, October 2025
A wide dry riverbed in Jammu with a thin channel of water running through rubble.
A river bed in Jammu, a year after the water came through. Jammu, October 2025
People stand near damaged brick houses on a slope above a river in Jammu.
Houses above the water line in Jammu, and the water came anyway. Jammu, October 2025
Moving pictures
A talk on what pollutes the Musi
A workshop, sitting on the floor
A clean up, while it is happening