Art Of Living Foundation Told They Can't Escape A 5 Crore Fine, Gets Slapped With Another One!

Willing to be pushed only thus far, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) not only threw out the Art of Living's plea to substitute the almost Rs 5 crore "environmental compensation" it owes with a bank guarantee, it also slapped a Rs 5,000 fine on the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar-run outfit for filing a plea that "lacks bonafide."

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The NGT said Shankar's Art of Living Foundation must pay Rs 4.75 crores "environmental compensation" on March 9 for damaging the biodiversity of the Yamuna river's floodplains when it conducted a three-day cultural even there from March 11-13.

High profile cultural festival

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Despite all the controversy about the Festival - the army even constructed a pontoon bridge for what was a private event - it was attended by top government officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who inaugurated the event and lauded Shankar for his "soft power."

This, despite the fact that the NGT had already criticised the Art of Living Foundation and penalised it and despite Shankar declaring he wouldn't ever pay the compensation. Incidentally, the Foundation spent more than Rs 26 crores on its three-day event.

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At the time, the NGT turned down an environmentalist's plea asking that court cancel the event that the Delhi High Court had earlier called an 'ecological disaster'. The NGT did so on the condition that the Art of Living Foundation pays the"environmental compensation".

Art of Living assessing environmental damage

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On Tuesday, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar came down hard on the Foundation for not having paid the compensation despite being granted - on the Foundation's plea - three weeks to pay it.

Now, Art of Living asked to substitute the penalty with a bank guarantee as it is "in the process of preparing proposal laying down process/methodology for collection of scientific data/evidence regarding assessment of actual environmental damage, if any."

TOI

The Foundation "... hopes to persuade that the damage is neither permanent nor irreversible but, in fact, remediable and respectfully seeks an opportunity to demonstrate that the allegations levelled against it are completely without foundation and the reports submitted by expert committees which form the basis of previous orders were predominantly based on visual examination of the site rather than a detailed scientific assessment which, in any event, was not possible due to paucity of time," the plea had said.