Indian environmentalists are aghast at the hosting of a huge cultural festival on the floodplain of Delhi’s main river that begins tomorrow, warning that the event and its 3.5 million visitors would devastate the area’s biodiversity.
The World Culture Festival, organized by one of India’s best-known spiritual gurus, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, spreads across 400 hectares on the banks of the Yamuna. It features a 2.8 hectare stage for 35,000 musicians and dancers, newly built dirt tracks and 650 portable toilets.
Green groups accuse organizers of ripping up vegetation and ruining the river’s fragile ecosystem by damaging its bed and disrupting water flows. They want authorities to cancel the event before more harm is done.
“This land is not meant for any of those things. The biodiversity of the land has been completely destroyed,” said Anand Arya, one of several environmentalists who petitioned India’s top green court.
“Where will the sewage and the excrement go? All across the floodplains,” he said, adding that the waste left by visitors would endanger a nearby bird sanctuary.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who like Ravi Shankar is a yoga devotee, was due to attend tomorrow’s opening, but it is not clear whether he will do so after the event 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 said the stage lacks a structural stability certificate.
Ravi Shankar, who enjoys a cult following in India and abroad, has rejected the criticism.
He has said he should be rewarded for hosting the event alongside one of the country’s most polluted rivers.
His organization’s lawyer, Saraswati Akshama Nath, said necessary approvals including safety certificates were granted in December last year before construction began and that the structures would be removed once the three-day festival ends.
“Consent was given to us by all the authorities,” she said outside the court on Tuesday. “We have only used eco-friendly material.”
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