Indian guru’s festival on floodplain riles greens
NEW DELHI: Indian environmentalists are aghast at the hosting of a huge cultural festival on the floodplain of Delhi’s main river.
They warned that the event and its 3.5 million visitors would devastate the area’s biodiversity.
The festival is due to start tomorrow on the banks of the Yamuna.
The “World Culture Festival”, organised by one of India’s best-known spiritual gurus, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, spreads across 400 hectares on the banks of the river.
It features a 2.8ha stage for 35 000 musicians and dancers, newly-built dirt tracks and 650 portable toilets.
Green groups accuse organisers of ripping up vegetation and ruining the river’s fragile ecosystem by damaging its bed and disrupting water flows.
They want the authorities to cancel the event before more harm is done.
Anand Arya, one of several environmentalists who petitioned India’s top green court, said: “This land is not meant for any one of those things. The biodiversity of the land has been destroyed by this event.”
“Where will the sewage and excrement go? All across the floodplains?” He said the waste left by visitors would endanger a nearby bird sanctuary.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who like Ravi Shankar is a yoga devotee, is due to attend the opening, but it’s not clear whether he will do so after the event has sparked such uproar – and not just among environmentalists. Delhi police have warned of “utter chaos” at the event unless safety lapses are addressed, the Indian Express reported yesterday, citing a March 1 letter to the federal government that says the stage lacks a structural stability certificate.
Ravi Shankar, who enjoys a cult following in India and overseas, rejected the criticism. He said he should be rewarded for hosting the event next to one of the country’s most polluted rivers.
His organisation’s lawyer, Saraswati Akshama Nath, said necessary approvals, including safety certificates, were granted in December before construction began and the structures would be removed once the three-day festival ended.
“Consent was given to us by all the authorities,” she said outside the court on Tuesday.” We have only used eco- friendly material.”
The National Green Tribunal recommended Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation be fined 1.2 billion rupees (R277million) to restore the land.
WHERE WILL THE SEWAGE AND EXCREMENT GO? ALL ACROSS THE FLOODPLAINS?