The National Green Tribunal (NGT) held the Art of Living Foundation responsible for degradation to the Yamuna floodplains.
What is the reason behind NGT’s decision?
World Culture Festival was organised by the the Art of Living Foundation in the Yamuna Floodplains in March 2016.
NGT earlier imposed Rs.5 crore as interim environment compensation on the Art of Living Foundation for the event’s impact on the environment.
An expert committee, in its report, said that due to the event, the floodplains lost “almost all its natural vegetation” like trees, shrubs, tall grasses, aquatic vegetation.
It includes loss of water hyacinth that provides habitat to a large number of animals, insects and mud-dwelling organisms.
Now, NGT again held the organisation responsible for causing damage and environmental degradation.
It also added that if restoration costs exceeded earlier fine of Rs.5 crore, DDA could recover the balance from the Art of Living Foundation.
The decision was based on polluter pays principle.
What is polluter pays principle?
It is an universally acknowledged in environmental jurisprudence.
According to this, those who pollute the environment must be made to pay not just for the costs of remedial action, but also for compensating victims of environmental damage.
The principle’s origin can be traced back to the Stockholm Declaration made at the UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972.
The Declaration asked signatory countries to develop international laws “regarding liability and compensation for the victims of pollution and other environmental damage”.
After this World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), was established in 1983 emphasised polluter’s pay principle.
The 1987 WCED report greatly influenced the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, which, for the first time, explicitly enshrined the Polluter Pays Principle.
