This rejoinder is in response to the article titled 'First damage, then fix' carried out by The Hindu.
The Art of Living's World Culture Festival and its much debated venue over a portion of Yamuna floodplain deserves intrinsic imperative for everyone to see through the brouhaha of distortions and deceptions.
The article talking about polluter pays principle draws parallel among two unparalleled activities without any consequential similarity. This makes us question the very motive behind this well-crafted distortion of facts and figures.
Drawing an analogy between both the cases of National Highway 7 passing through Pench Tiger Reserve for 37 Kilometers and a three-day cultural event on an infinitesimally small portion of floodplain of Yamuna under the World Culture Festival 2016 does not stand any logic among scientific community.
To even accuse the Art of Living event of resorting to 'polluter pays principle' is presuming that it had polluted the Yamuna. This is a random accusation based on mindless speculation. Undoubtedly Yamuna in Delhi is subjected to unacceptable level of pollutants long before the Art of Living’s event. A lot needs to be done to rejuvenate Yamuna and its floodplain. Nevertheless it’s important to mention that the three-day event has NOT discharged any wastewater in Yamuna nor the event required any drawdown of groundwater in the floodplain. The land parcel of Yamuna floodplain allotted for the event has been subjected to unauthorized dumping of construction waste by contractors at least since last two decades and the area has also been subjected to other unsolicited activities, including some mega events organized on the ground.
The WCF ground was surrounded on one side by unauthorized colonies, on another side by the Barapullah drain discharging untreated wastewater in to Yamuna and construction works for an elevated road. Beyond this drain are the colossal dumps of construction waste and if that was not enough, a new line of Delhi Metro Rail project is in progress. Amidst all this, we find surprising that what seems to have caught the fancy of the so-called environmentalists and some section of the media is the World Culture Festival 2016.
Something more than just environment concerns are surely at play here.
It is important to note that despite a longstanding urgent need for conservation and rejuvenation, the part of the Yamuna floodplain used for the Art of Living event is neither a wildlife sanctuary nor a reserved forest or a designated forest with any category of preservation orders.
Event managers of The Art of Living have taken utmost care that the event is strictly in accordance to the advisory notes issued by Delhi Pollution Control Committee. On the earliest possible date after the event, the event site was evacuated and handed over to the custodians DDA after clearing all the event related infrastructure and hand picking all the accidental litter.
Our environment expert says, "The actual impact on various environmental indicators tends to zero as a result of the event. Even the issue to alleged compaction of the floodplain is exaggerated since original grasses have regrown over the entire land parcel used for the event including the stage area; that too without any human intervention."
Perhaps the writer is not aware that NO damages whatsoever have YET been scientifically established by the expert or the Principal Committee of the NGT. They took a one hour stroll down acres of land of the Art of Living event and merely based their pronouncement of compensation on random visual survey. No sampling, no scientific parameters were applied. This puts a big question mark on what basis did the Committee decide the figure of 120 crore and then Rs. 5 crore compensation for Art of Living to pay? Why was The Art of Living singled out to pay a compensation for a three-day event that was held for 4 hours each day when permanent structures like the DND flyway, Batla House, unauthorized housing along Kalindi Bypass; Nafees Road coming from Jamia Millia Islamia stand firmly there for years without having to face demands of compensation for unquantified damages?
The demand for payment of compensation without establishing the extent of damage is a totally unjustified demand. Never did The Art of Living propose to pay for the event to be allowed to be held. So to say that The Art of Living has tried to earn respectability by agreeing to pay the compensation holds no water. Fortunately, we enjoy utmost respectability in 155 countries that we have earned over 35 years due to various social projects undertaken by us.
What we can safely and rightly say is that not only was the World Culture Festival 2016 a temporary activity but what has never been mentioned till date is the that it was held over an infinitesimally small portion of the Yamuna floodplain. The event was organized with due permission from Delhi Development Authority, an autonomous body designated as custodian of the land along Yamuna floodplain categorized under ‘Category – O’, other relevant stakeholder agencies of Government of India and Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi.
While handing over the site to DDA, The Art of Living has urged the principal bench of NGT to allow qualitative and quantitative assessment of actual impacts/damage if any, on the floodplain by an expert. We hope the writer will gracefully accept that far from setting a wrong precedent, The Art of Living has actually set an exemplary one of undeterringly following rules against all odds.
This article is yet another example of how benign environmental activism does not seem to exist. What we get is covert intentions under the garb of environmental activism.
The article has completely misrepresented the organization and its event and carried on the existing bias in some sections of the media. We hope you will find it in you to be fair enough to publish this rebuttal in the same space as the article published by you.
Written by Dr. Rakesh Ranjan, Environmentalist.
