Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living on Monday questioned the findings of an expert committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the alleged damage caused to the Yamuna floodplains following the hosting of a three-day cultural event organised by it here last year.
The Art of Living told a Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar that it was a “prerequisite” for the seven-member expert panel to know about the status of the floodplains prior to the event before coming to the conclusion that any damage was caused by the three-day event.
Satellite image
It also raised doubts over the satellite image used by the panel to estimate the damage. The committee is headed by Ministry of Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar.
“The committee, while submitting its report on July 28 last year, had relied on a single Google satellite image from September 15, 2015. There were multiple Google images available between 2000-2015, but the committee chose only one image out of all the pictures, which was during peak monsoon. In that period, there was heavy rain at the site and selection of that image to ascertain the damage is questionable,” said Nikhil Sakhardande, counsel for the Art of Living.
Mr. Sakhardande said the panel admitted in a report dated November 28, 2016, that it did not know the condition of the site before the event.
He said that if the panel was unaware of the condition of the site before the event, “how could it assess the impact of the festival” on the floodplains.
