Delhi Jal Board (DJB) advisor and river conservation crusader Prof. Vikram Soni has appealed to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to prevent the destruction of Krishna River floodplains near Vijayawada.
Talking to The Hindu , Prof. Soni said there was gross violation of the protected status of the floodplain and wetlands in the area. Since the NGT was unable to monitor these developments, he wanted the tribunal to stay all construction on these protected areas and ask the State government to demolish these constructions immediately.
He further said, “NGT was primarily formed to protect the environment and expedite the legal process to avoid the “ fait accompli ”, the fate of many genuine efforts in the public interest. But vested interests had found ways around this. They had managed to delay the cases and go ahead with environmental destruction in the name of “development.” The NGT should act fast and “stay” activity where there was a possibility of living natural resource destruction.”
Massive construction
Lauding NGT for imposing fines on the Art of Living Foundation for environmental violations on the protected Yamuna floodplains in Delhi while conducting their cultural extravaganza, Prof. Soni said that these fines were for the environmental damage to the floodplains in the raising of temporary structures which were dismantled in a month. On the other hand, in the case of Krishna floodplains in Amaravati Capital city, in spite of various petitions filed in NGT, it took over two years only to reserve judgement in a case where the floodplains were to be built upon and totally destroyed.
The judgment was reserved on April 20 and almost six months had passed. In the time after the judgment was reserved till now, there had been massive construction and consequent destruction of the floodplains, he said.
The Andhra Pradesh government had given an undertaking that they would protect the floodplains,to the NGT and it reserved the judgment with the condition that no construction would be taken up on the floodplains, wetlands, islands in this river conservation zone; and also if any construction were to take place, it would be demolished.
However, in the period after the judgment was reserved there were several violations, including laying of a 12 km-long and 200 m-wide seed access road, extension of the Chief Minister’s residential complex next to the river and flood water lifting works.
For 70 years, governments and courts had been talking about preserving and protecting the floodplains of the rivers without really understanding the definition of floodplain, he said.
