The rehabilitation of the Yamuna floodplains, “destroyed” due to a cultural extravaganza organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living, will cost ₹13.29 crore and take almost 10 years, an expert committee has told the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The committee, headed by Shashi Shekhar, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, has informed the panel that a major restoration work had to be carried out to compensate for the damage to the Yamuna floodplains.
“It has been estimated that approximately 120 hectares of floodplains of west [right bank] of the river Yamuna and about 50 hectares of floodplains of the eastern side [left bank] of the river have been adversely impacted ecologically at different magnitudes,” it said.
Last year, the green body allowed Art of Living to hold the three-day ‘World Culture Festival’ while expressing its helplessness in banning the event because of “fait accompli.”
It, however, imposed ₹5 crore as interim environment compensation on the Art of Living Foundation for the event’s impact on the environment.
Initially, a four-member committee recommended that Art of Living Foundation should pay ₹100-120 crore as restoration cost for “extensive and severe damage” to the Yamuna floodplains.
Later, a seven-member expert committee told the NGT that the event had “completely destroyed” the riverbed. It observed that entire floodplain area used for the main event site between the DND flyover and the Barapulla drain (on the right bank of the Yamuna) was completely destroyed and not simply damaged.
“The ground is now totally levelled, compacted and hardened and is totally devoid of water bodies or depressions and almost completely devoid of any vegetation. The area where the grand stage was erected [and the area immediately behind it] is heavily consolidated — most likely with a different kind of external material used to level the ground and compress it. Huge amount of earth and debris have been dumped to construct the ramps for access from the DND flyover and from the two pontoon bridges across the Barapulla drain,” the expert committee said.
The committee, in its 47-page report, said that due to the three-day event, the floodplain has lost “almost all its natural vegetation” like trees, shrubs, tall grasses, aquatic vegetation, including water hyacinth, which provides habitat to a large number of animals, insects and mud-dwelling organisms.
It has said that it will cost ₹13.29 crore and take almost 10 years to rehabilitate the river floodplain.
