How Sri Sri/AOL completely destroyed floodplains
The National Green Tribunal's (NGT) principal committee which assessed the damage, if any , caused by Art of Living's World Culture Festival in March has concluded that the Yamuna floodplain area where the event was held has been "completely destroyed".
The report which was recently submitted to the Tribunal has compared the state of the floodplain before the event in a satellite image of September 5, 2015 with another taken on March 15, 2016. The committee has, however, not assessed the compensation payable by AOL for restoration of the floodplain. It observed that in the 2015 image, presence of natural vegetation and a large expanse of water can be readily recognized. The committee consisted of Shashi Shekhar, former secretary, water resources; scientist Nitin K Labhasetwar, nominated by the director of CSIR; RM Liberhan, former central defence accountant; Prof AK Gosain of IIT Delhi; Brij Gopal, former Jawaharlal Nehru University professor; Prof AA Kazmi of IIT Kanpur; and Delhi University Prof Emeritus CR Babu.
AOL had in a press statement alleged that the committee was biased. "We have filed an application to reconstitute the expert committee on the ground that it is biased. Our application has been filed on the basis of strong irrefutable evidence. The committee has admitted that they had in the first instance inadvertently recommended the compensation amount without any scientific assessment. Also, before doing any scientific assessment, one committee member published his baseless conclusions in a media interview. Moreover, we have just discovered that another member of the expert committee has an extremely close proximity with the petitioner," they had said.
The expert committee's assessment of the area where event was held is that it "has been completely destroyed, not simply damaged...the ground is now levelled, compacted and hardened and is totally devoid of water bodies or depressions and almost completely devoid of any vegetation except for a few large cattails at the base of the DND flyover." It adds that the area where the stage was erected is heavily consolidated "most likely with a different kind of external material used to level the ground and compress it...huge amount of debris have been dumped to construct ramps for access from the DND flyover..." It also notes that the ground compaction is heavy in wetland areas along the river.
The committee has listed the environmental damage separately . It has said that there is a change in topography which has a direct bearing on the habitat. Compaction by event organizers has allegedly completely "eliminated the natural physical features and the diversity of the habitat."
The water bodies that have disappeared due to compaction control floods, help groundwater recharge, support vegetation, fish and other biodiversity. "Overall, the floodwater retention capacity of the area has been severely compromised."
The panel has noted that trees, shrubs, reeds, tall grasses and aquatic vegetation like water hyacinth have been lost.The vegetation provides habitat and breeding sites for a lot of birds, fish, frogs, turtles, insects and small organisms. It has called this an "invisible loss" of biodiversity which cannot be easily assessed. It added that there are also changes in the substrata and the nature of soil due to compaction -- the soil loses infiltration capacity which further inhibits gas exchange.
It observed that functional changes in the environment occur slowly with time and can be noticed only over a longer period.
The report has recommended restoration and conservation of the floodplain as a whole.
To deal with the damage caused by the AOL event, which affected the area between the DND flyover and the eastern floodplain, it has recommended loosening of the soil by dredging, removal of ramps, bioremediation of the soil, vegetation to be restored by planting native species and construction of "treatment wetlands" which can help treat polluted water before draining it into the river.
The committee, however, said it's "difficult to assess the costs of environmental damage and degradation accurately and its restoration in terms of compensation payable." It suggested that continuous supervision is required during restoration and for several years after--about ten years.The chairman of the committee, Shashi Shekhar, and three expert members have offered to take the responsibility for monitoring.
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