The massive ‘World Culture Festival’ held on the banks of the river Yamuna in Delhi by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living has “completely destroyed and not simply damaged the riverbed”, a group of experts has told the country’s top environmental court.

A report in Indian Express said that a committee of experts, appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to assess the damage found that the floodplain had been “completely destroyed” causing “invisible loss of biodiversity” that “may never be able to return.”

The seven-member panel, headed by Shashi Shekhar, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, submitted its report to the NGT on 28 July.

The floodplain, the report says, has lost “almost all its natural vegetation” like trees, shrubs, tall grasses and aquatic vegetation including water hyacinth crucial to the survival of a large number of animals and organisms.

“These organisms were rendered homeless, driven away by intense activity and many were consigned to graves under the debris. This is invisible loss of biodiversity which cannot be easily assessed and most may never be able to return,” it says.

The committee pointed out that its members were “prevented from making any study and were forced to retreat by the AOL volunteers on the site” on April 15, and that they visited the site again on June 6 “for a visual assessment”. It said its observations were supported by satellite images of the site taken on March 15 and May 10.

The event by Sri Sri, founder of Art of Living and known supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had courted huge controversy. The NGT had fined the self-claimed guru Rs 5 crore, which the AOL founder paid with visible reluctance.

His event had brought both Modi and his political rival, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, together on one platform causing huge criticism for the AAP leader.