On 8 February 2016 at 18:50, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan <yamunajiye@gmail.

com> wrote:
Kind attention: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji
Adarniye Gurudev,
Greetings from Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan.
This communication is in continuation of our earlier appeals made on 7th and 22nd January 2016. (Copies
enclosed).
Please allow us to draw your kind attention to the enclosed pictorial report dated 5 February, 2016 that
highlights the manner in which the active flood plain of the river Yamuna in Delhi is being adversely impacted
by the massive clearing, leveling, dumping and construction works underway in preparation of the planned
event.
Your holiness, experts extol the immense value of the flood plains of rivers as:
floodplains are as important to rivers as bark is to trees. Stripped of their floodplains, rivers will
slowly die just as ring-barked trees do.
Just as the sap flows through the outermost ring of a tree, not through its centre, the lifeblood
of a river ebbs and flows on its floodplain. The vegetation growing there isnt mere decoration; it
is a rivers roots and leaves.
Floodplain waters contain at least 100 times more species than do river channels, and there is
growing evidence that many, if not all, of the species that live in rivers depend in some way on
floodplains.
Floodplains are natures water treatment works, removing vast quantities of pollutants from
inland river waters. They also provide rivers with the building blocks of life, which are used by
everything from bacteria to fish.
Clearly such massive clearing and conversion of the flood plain is taking heavy toll of the
biodiversity extant at the site in question and puts a question mark on the future of the river
rejuvenation plans underway under the Maily se Nirmal Yamuna Rejuvenation project 2017 as
enunciated by the Hon'ble NGT in its judgment dated 13 January 2015.
Surely your holiness, with your keen interest in the rejuvenation of river Yamuna, such an
activity would not have your approval and thus we request a review of these plans.
Srimad Bhagwat Gita, perhaps the ultimate book on the Science and Art of Living for all
mankind, enunciates the key 39 attributes of a siddh Bhakt (accomplished devotee) in shloka 13
- 19 of Chapter 12. Some of them include;
1. One who is free of malice for any living being
2. One who does not threaten nor is threatened by any living being
3. One who is friends to all living being
Your holiness, what is currently happening in the river bed in Delhi in preparation for the event
(35th Anniversary of the founding by your holiness of Art of Living) cannot be observing any of
the above since large number of big and small plants and animals, including birds are losing their
habitat and existence resulting from the total eradication of the naturalness of the site in the
question.
May we thus implore your holiness to please review and change the plans as currently unfolding
in the river flood plain in Delhi.
With warm regards and Pranaams,
Manoj Misra
Convener