Pay Rs 13 cr for damaging Yamuna floodplain with Art of Living: NGT to Sri Sri
The expert committee has informed NGT that major restoration work has to be carried out to compensate for the damage to Yamuna floodplains.
New Delhi: Rehabilitation of Yamuna floodplains, “destroyed” due to a cultural extravaganza organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living (AoL) in March 2016, will cost Rs 13.29 crore and take almost 10 years, an expert committee has told the National Green Tribunal.
The expert committee, headed by Shashi Shekhar, Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, has informed the green panel that major restoration work has to be carried out to compensate for the damage to Yamuna floodplains.
“It has been estimated that approximately 120 hectares (about 300 acres) of floodplains of west (right bank) of the river Yamuna and about 50 hectares (120 acres) floodplains of the eastern side (left bank) of the river have been adversely impacted ecologically at different magnitudes,” it said.
The green body had last year allowed AOL to hold three- day ‘World Culture Festival’ of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living on the Yamuna flood plains while expressing its helplessness in banning the event because of “fait accompli”.
It, however, had imposed Rs 5 crore as interim environment compensation on the foundation for the event’s impact on the environment.
Initially, a four-member committee had recommended that AOL Foundation should pay Rs 100-120 crore as restoration cost for “extensive and severe damage” to the floodplains of Yamuna river.