Hyderabad, April 12 -- By Anjana Divakar

Somewhere between the sleek glass towers of Hyderabad's IT corridor and the ever-expanding urban sprawl lies a vanishing piece of the city's soul-its forests.

The clearing of nearly 400 acres near the University of Hyderabad (UoH) has caused more than outrage-it has revived an urgent question: What does development mean, and who defines it?

This stretch of land- though transferred to the government in 2004, it remained one of Hyderabad's last wilderness corridors-home to native trees, birds, reptiles, and crucial groundwater recharge zones.

Despite a High Court stay, bulldozers moved in. Trees fell. Students and citizens watched in disbelief. Public pressure and legal scrutiny followed, leading...