Art Of Living's World Culture Festival Destroyed Yamuna Floodplains Forever, Biodiversity Loss Irreversible

The World Culture Festival organized by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar's Art of Living in March along the Yamuna riverbank has "completely destroyed" the riverbed, an expert committee told the National Green Tribunal.

PTI

The committee was appointed by the NGT to look into the damage caused to the area.

"The committee observes that entire floodplain area used for the main event site i.e. between DND flyover and the Barapulla drain (on the right bank of river Yamuna) has been completely destroyed, 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 report submitted on July 28 said.

PTI

The committee headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar noted 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 large number of animals, insects and mud-dwelling organisms.

The report further states that construction of ramps and roads, alteration of water bodies and flattening of the ground has completely damaged the diversity of habitats.

PTI

The report validates the apprehensions environmentalists had raised before the event that the mega event would destroy the delicate ecosystem.

However Ravishankar had claimed that the venue in question "was a dumping ground. Not a park, not a sanctuary. It was not a place with birds, it was not beautiful. It was stinking. Nobody would say it was an ecologically pure place".

Even though after the controversy AoL had promised to clean up the riverbed, but activists say nothing have been done on the ground.

The event in March organised as part of 35th anniversary of AoL was attended by thousands of delegates from across the world.