The Yamuna floodplains, damaged during the Art of Living (AoL) foundation's 2016 World Culture Festival, will require "physical and biological" rehabilitation at an estimated cost of Rs 42 crore and may take ten years to complete, a National Green Tribunal (NGT) appointed expert panel said in its report. The panel has recommended to the Tribunal that this ecological restoration cost can be divided between AoL and other agencies.
As per the report, reviewed by DNA, approximately 170 hectares of floodplains, on either side of the Yamuna, have been adversely impacted ecologically at varying magnitude. This has happened due to compaction of floodplain, filling up of water bodies, construction of temporary stage, ramps, access roads and blocking of Yamuna's side channel.
To fix this, the committee has recommended physical restoration worth Rs 28.73 crore, by way of desilting and clearing wetlands, which they said were filled up during the preparations for the World Culture Festival and were partially destroyed as a result. The report stated that "about 75 hectares were impacted due to levelling and consolidation and compacting...wetlands have to be desilted and compacted area has to be decompacted." Along with it, the biological component of rehabilitation will involve introduction of macrophytes, submerged and floating aquatic plants and creation of sustainable biological communities.
"The suggested action plan...needs to be implemented at the earliest, so that the benefit of the next rain is obtained in the area. The physical component should be completed in two years' time...biological component should be accomplished over a period of 10 years," the report said.
The seven-member committee, that prepared the report, was headed by senior bureaucrat Shashi Shekhar, who was the then Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. Nitin Labhsetwar, Prof AK Gosain, Prof Brij Gopal, Prof AA Kazmi, Prof CR Babu and Rajinder Mohan Liberhan were the other members of the panel. In October 2016, NGT had directed the panel to study the environment damage and degradation caused due to the event and environmental compensation payable for restoration of floodplains.
AoL, though, had already objected the composition of the committee and called it biased. It had also sought constitution of a fresh committee, which is still pending. Reacting to the expert panel's report, the NGO said in a statement, "The expert committee members have given biased interviews in public while the case is sub-judice. Our legal team will have to study the basis of this new figure. The closeness of the petitioner with the expert Committee members was not disclosed to us when the Expert Committee was appointed by NGT and went into the preparation of the report. Our legal team will study the report and decide on the appropriate future course of action." The NGT is set to hear the matter on April 20.
