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There have been many arguments both for and against the World Culture Festival 2016 being conducted on the Yamuna plains. The National Green Tribunal alleges that the event has destroyed the river and the environment.Let us go through a detailed analysis of the various important claims put out by the National Green Tribunal’s (to be referred as NGT hereafter) Expert Committee alleging damage to the Yamuna Floodplains post the World Culture Festival, 2016 conducted by the Art of Living Foundation.I would like to present before the readers a statistically unbiased and scientifically backed representation of this case which is currently sub-judice.Land Description:Before we go further, it is essential that we first geographically define the area over which the World Culture Festival was conducted (From 11th March –13th March 2016)The land parcel is a finite piece of land over the Yamuna floodplain bound by the DND Flyover to its South; Barapulla Drain to its North;River Yamuna to its East and Ring Road to its West.Area ~ 25 hectaresCan be located on WGS (World Geodetic System) 84 coordinates 24 deg 34’55’’N and 77 deg 16’43’’EHere is the detailed image categorically bifurcating the various land sites w.r.t it’s usage for the event(Source: Google Earth, 15th of March ,2016)2. It is very essential to draw the following conclusions from the above satellite images:3-Permanently ramps existed since 2008 (Having bituminous pavement,with potholes and degenerating bituminous overlay).7-Area marked by the purple region previously had mounts of construction waste (malba) solid waste,which has been cleared for the WCF 2016 event by the Art of Living foundation at its own expense.8-Unpaved earthen road running parallel to the Barapullah drain,which is in existence at least since the year 2000,used for vehicles and earth-movers engaged in drain cleaning and slit removal in this section of Barapullah drain.The temporary installations and the make-shift stage are also clearly visible from the satellite imagery.Fig 1:Permanent Ramp 1 having bituminous pavement existed at least since Jan 2008Fig 2:Permanent Ramp 2 having bituminous pavement existed at least since Jan 2008Now, let us go and categorically visit each claim made by the NGTClaim 1: No permission sought from the NGT by the Art of Living Foundation before the eventFacts:The entire site belongs to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)Firstly,the NGT is a court,a tribunal and an autonomous institute, not a government agency to give permissions.Here is the official permission letter sought by the Art of Living (Vyakti Vikas Kendra India-Trust of the foundation) to use the land site for the event and it no where states that prior permission from the NGT needs to be sought.As you can see, the permission letter is approved by the Honorable L.G. of Delhi and duly signed by the Office of the Chief Engineer (E.P.)Mr.D.P.Singh of the DDA on 15th of December 2015.Apart from this, the Art of Living organization had taken permission from 20 various organizations and competent authorities (Government Bodies)The entire list of the government bodies is elucidated below:Central Public Works DepartmentDelhi Development AuthorityDelhi Fire ServiceDelhi Jal BoardDelhi PoliceDelhi Pollution Control CommitteeDelhi Traffic PoliceDepartment of Irrigation and Flood ControlDistrict Disaster Management AuthorityEast Delhi Municipal CorporationIndian ArmyIrrigation DepartmentMinistry of Environment and ForestsMinistry of External AffairsMinistry of Home AffairsNew Okhla Industrial Development AuthorityPublic Works Department-DelhiPublic Works Department-UPSouth Delhi Municipal CorporationUttar Pradesh Government2. Claim 2: Alleging the presence of wetlands on the eventFacts:To understand this point, we need to first comprehend the difference between a wetland and a floodplain.According to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands ,signed in 1971 (Iran) wetlands are defined as: "areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres"(The Convention on Wetlands, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. Number of Contracting Parties: 169)There are currently 26 Ramar sites in India which are enlisted below:Ashtamudi Wetland,KeralaBhoj Wetland,Madhya ParadeshChandertal Wetland,Himachal PradeshChilika Lake,OrissaDeepor Beel,AssamEast Calcutta Wetlands,West BengalHarike Lake,PunjabHokera Wetland,Jammu and KashmirKanjili,PunjabKeoladeo National Park,RajasthanKolleru Lake,Andhra PradeshLoktak Lake,ManipurNalsarovar,GujaratPoint Calimere Wildlife and Bird Santuary,Tamil NaduPong Dam Lake,Himachal PradeshRenuka Wetland,Himachal PradeshRopar,PunjabRudrasagar Lake,West Tripura DistrictSambhar Lake,RajasthanSasthamkotta Lake,KeralaSurinsar-Mansar Lake,Jammu and KashmirTsomoriri,Jammu and KashmirUpper Ganga River,Uttar PradeshVembanad-Kol Wetland,KeralaWular Lake,Jammu and KashmirBhitarkanika Mangroves,OrissaSo, according to the Ramsar sites (India being a signatory of the Ramsar convention) , the World Culture Festival venue does not come under the wetland category.Wetlands come under Ecologically Sensitive Zones are are protected areas by the government.Now,let us analyse the land area with respect to the Survey of India (The Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying) mapsHere is the Annexure -1B Portion of 1:25000 Scale Detailed Map of Delhi, published by the Survey of India in the year 1985,Under the direction of Major General Girish Chandra Aggarwal, Surveyor General of India; Titled-’Delhi Guide Map,Third Edition 1985′The map clearly depicts the WCF 2016 event site as an extremely flat “Point Bar” (floodplain deposit) without existence of any wetland or enclosed waterbody. The flatness of this land parcel is to the extent that contour indicating difference in height of the order of 100cm is also non-existent throughout the area.Another important point for record in this map is the existence of natural path of ‘Kushak River – Barapullah Drain’ prior to straightening of its channel traversing straight into River Yamuna and filling of its original channel. The map also depicts the situation prior to construction of Guide Bank and DND Flyway.Looking at the National Wetland Atlas (Published in March 2011 by the Space Application Centre,ISRO,Ahmedabad),it fails to indentify a single wetland on the event site.According to the National Geographic Society, floodplains are defined as “A flood plain (or floodplain) is a generally flat area of land next to a river or stream. It stretches from the banks of the river to the outer edges of the valley”A Floodplain does not require jurisdictions of the environmental authorities that a wetland does.Floodplains have a rich history of interacting with the society for civilizations to flourish.The first great civilizations all grew up in river valleys. The oldest, 3300 to 2500 BCE, was along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East; the name given to that civilization, Mesopotamia, means "land between the rivers". The Nile valley in Egypt had been home to agricultural settlements as early as 5500 BCE, but the growth of Egypt as a civilization began around 3100 BCE. A third civilization grew up along the Indus River around 2600 BCE, in parts of what are now India and Pakistan. The fourth great river civilization emerged around 1700 BCE along the Yellow River in China, also known as the Huang-He River Civilization.Many towns have been built across floodplains because of easy access to fresh water,the fertility of floodplain land for farming,cheap transportation, via rivers and railroads, which often followed rivers and ease of development of flat land.Large cultural and religious gatherings taking place on various floodplains across India like the Kumbh Mela and the Maramon Convention.The World Culture Festival venue was thus a floodplain and not a wetland as claimed by the Expert Committee of the NGT.3. Claim 3: Destroying the natural flow of the river YamunaFacts:A comparison of river morphology has been conducted on satellite images for the period between 22nd of December 2000 till 10th of May 2016.Fluvial Geo-morphology of the river (i.e. land form related to the river) and its floodplain (over which the event was organized) indicates continuity of a pattern in channel dimension, sedimentation,bank deposition,bank erosion and flow of the river.On a careful examinations of images between 26th August 2015(month of monsoon in Delhi) to 10th May 2016(Pre-Monsoon Dry Summer Season) no abnormality in the pattern of flow;channel dimension;riverbed;or morphology of both the banks has been noticed.Further,examination by ground verification in a series of field studies found no scientific acceptance of the above mentioned claim by the NGTHere are the satellite images taken that show the continuity of pattern of the river flow:Pic 1: 26th August 2015 (Post-monsoon)Pic 2: 29th October 2015 (Post-monsoon)Pic 3: 23rd November 2015 (Post-monsoon)Pic 4: 15th of December 2015 (Post-monsoon)Pic 5: 27th of February 2016 (Preparation for the event in progress;stage scaffoldings under construction)Pic 6: 15th of March 2016 (Post WCF, Pre-Monsoon)Pic 7: 25th of May 2016 (Depicting the entire area utilized by the World Culture Festival 2016,now evacuated,cleared and all the temporary installations removed)And as I write this answer now (13 th of May 2017, 15:39 hr), I have taken the snapshots from Google Earth of the venue and it is as it was before the event.The above images tell us that there is no change whatsoever in the natural river course of the Yamuna. This again proves the Expert Committee’s claims as false and unscientific.Selection Bias by the Expert Committee members?In the report,the expert committee have replied upon a singular satellite image for the event as opposed to a larger sample size covering pre-monsoon and post monsoon images for 15–20 years despite its availability to the public on Google Earth.The Expert Committee compared the satellite images of the venue dated 5th of Sept 2015 (Peak monsoon season) with that of a mid summer picture of March 2016, post the event (Summer pre-monsoon)It doesn’t take an Einstein to realize that such a comparison cannot be done in the first place.The Expert Committee is basically trying to attribute the negative effect of the lack of rain to the World Culture Festival !4. Claim 4: Destroying the reeds,grasses,natural vegetation on the river bed and the venueFacts:High pollution in the River Yamuna has led to a situation where dissolved oxygen tends to zero (often less than 1), high load of suspended particulate matter, high turbidity almost blocks the sunlight penetration in the water within few centimeters of vertical depth etc.All of the above factors collectively create a situation where no macro flora could grow or anchored within the riverbed of the Yamuna.Reeds and grasses could only grow beyond the riverbed in the riparian zone of the floodplain.The images of the last 15 years,indicate that the floodplain around the venue had some strips and patches of reeds. Those patches have been compared with the images after the event and on a comparison of images, no change in area covered by reeds has been observed.Riparian reeds along the Barapullah drain and small patches behind and in front of the guide bank (near the bridge of DND flyway) are unaltered before , during and the period post the event.Also the number of trees before and after the event were counted using high risk satellite images and they were found to be the same.Pic 1: Regrowth of grasses on over the location where once the stage was raised (17th of April 2016)Pic 2: State of grasses on the event venue (17th of April 2016)Pic 3: Undisturbed riparian reeds along the abandoned channel in front of the Guide Bank (17th of April 2016)Pic 4: Undisturbed riparian reeds along the Barapullah Drain (17th of April 2016)Also, another important to note that the Expert Committee of the NGT accused the Art of Living Foundation for bringing in and dumping the malba (construction debris) and flattening the malba thereby destroying the flood plain.Firstly, as shown by the satellite images of the land parcel furnished earlier, the purple area indicates the unsolicited construction debris that existed since the year 2000.Trucks were seen emptying tonnes of malba on a daily basis when the Art of Living began preparation for the event (circa December 2015)Once the land was allotted to the foundation, the Art of Living sent out a letter the the DDA citing these concerns about the existing construction dump.To which, the DDA didn’t remove the debris whereas told the Art of Living Foundation to remove the malba at its own cost !Here, is the invoice of the contractor ,who was given the duty to remove the debris from the venue site ,under the instructions the Art of Living Foundation (Cost borne by the Art of Living Foundation !)This is how the site appeared before the event:So, why did the NGT falsely accuse the foundation wherein no cementing/foundation work of any sort was undertaken for the event?5. Claim 5: Disturbed the aquatic life of the riverFacts:The river Yamuna (Delhi stretch) is nearly devoid of fish species due to extremely low level ( ~0) dissolved oxygen in the river water.Let us analyze the water quality of the river Yamuna first.Referring to the “Water Quality Status of Yamuna River” report by the Central Pollution and Control Board (erstwhile Ministry of Environment and Forests,Government of India),here is the longitudinal profile of the dissolved oxygen.(Report foreword by V. Rajagopalan, Chairman-CPCB)(Notice the graph points near Nizamuddin Bridge ,Agra Canal)The report goes out further to state that“ In Yamuna River low BOD and low DO was observed more oftenly may be due to consumption of oxygen by settled sludge in the riverbed.”(Ref 3.13, page No.42)Other key notations from the report are listed below:“The sources contributing pollution are both point & non-point type. Urban agglomeration at NCT – Delhi is the major contributor of pollution in the Yamuna River followed by Agra and Mathura. About 85% of the total pollution in the river is contributed by domestic sources. The condition of river deteriorate further due to abstraction of significant amount of river water, leaving almost no fresh water in the river, which is essential to maintain the assimilation capacity of the river.”“In the critically, polluted stretch of Yamuna river from Delhi to Chambal confluence, there was significant fluctuations in dissolved oxygen level from Nil to well above saturation level. This reflects presence of organic pollution load and persistence of eutrophic conditions in the river.”“Bacteriological contamination is significantly high in the entire Yamuna River stretch. Total Coliforms are generally well above the prescribed water quality standard even sometimes at Yamunotri also. The microbiological analysis confirms that the bacteriological contamination was predominantly contributed by human beings.”Here are the longitudinal profiles of the Total and Faecal Coliforms in Yamuna River :Not to forget the drains opening up in the Delhi stretch.“Najafgarh drain of NCT – Delhi is the biggest polluter of River Yamuna, which contributes about 26% (year 2001) to 33% 22 (year 2000) of total BOD load and 48% (year 2003) to 52% (year 2001) of total discharge that joins Yamuna river and canal at Delhi by various drains. There are 70 sub drains that join main Najafgarh Drain. The study indicated that the total BOD load received by Najafgarh Drain through sub-drains was 136 TPD, whereas the BOD load at the terminal end of the Najafgarh Drain was 83 TPD only. This reduction may be contributed by biodegradation, deposition of setllable material at the bottom and diversion of drain water for irrigation etc”.“ River Yamuna receives significantly high amount of organic matter, which is generally, originates from domestic sources. For biodegradation, this organic waste requires oxygen, causing significant depletion of dissolved oxygen in river water. The oxygen depletion not only affects biotic community of the river but also affects its self-purification capacity. This problem is critical in the river stretch between Delhi and confluences of river with Chambal. In Delhi stretch, the load of organic matter is so high that it consumes the entire dissolved oxygen available in river water.”Presenting another latest report by the Central Pollution Control Board titled “Water quality status of in Delhi stretch of Yamuna River”Exhibit 1: Water quality of river Yamuna river in terms of Dissolved Oxygen (DO)The above graph clearly shows that the standard DO should be~4–5 whereas near the Nizamuddin bridge and Okhla region it below 1.Exhibit 2: Water quality of river Yamuna in terms of Total ColiformThe report also throws light on the discharge of various drains in the river Yamuna.“There are twenty one major wastewater drains in NCT-Delhi, out of which 18 drains join Yamuna River and rest joins Agra/Gurgaon canal.All the drains join Yamuna River downstream of Wazirabad barrage.These drains are being monitored regularly on monthly basis.The range of total BOD Load of 18 drains join Yamuna river was 105 TPD (August, 2015) to 229 TPD (January, 2016).Total discharge of these drains was varied from 29 m3/s (May, 2016 to 43 m3/s (August, 2014).The collective average of these drains for the year 2015 and 2016 in terms of discharge was about 34.8 m3/s and 34.3 m3/s respectively whereas, BOD load average for these two years was 164 Tons/day (TPD) and 178 Tons/day respectively.Based on the Discharge and BOD load of 18 drains Najafgarh drain was the biggest polluter of Yamuna River followed by Shahdara drain. These two drains alone contributes about 74% of total Bod load and 82% of total discharge of the 18 major drains that join Yamuna river at Delhi.”Exhibit 3: Discharge of major drains joins Yamuna River at DelhiLastly, I wish to produce a report titled “ Restoration and Conservation of River Yamuna” authored by the NGT Expert Committee members itself in the year 2012–13(Authors Prof. C.R.Babu, Prof.A.K.Gosain, Prof.Brij Gopal-All being expert members of the NGT)The report categorically states that“the loss of life supporting potential of the river is the major concern to the public, the Government and the courts”“the flowing water, the river bed, the floodplain forest and grassland ecosystems are locally extinct”Here is a snapshot of the same :The report also states that:“The Delhi urban stretch of 22 km in the downstream of Wazirabad barrage upto Okhla barrage (Section III) is critically polluted and dry weather flow is almost the treated and untreated sewage from 22 drains and the fresh water flow from upstream or lateral connection and it is perhaps one of the most polluted river stretches in the country with zero DO and over 30 mg/l BOD levels”Whereas, the same committee members in its final report slamming the Art of Living state the following:How could the World Culture Festival destroy something that according to the same committee members didn’t even exist in the first place.Why is the Art of Living blamed selectively for the pollution of the river Yamuna over the past decades?Isn’t this nothing but sheer hypocrisy?From the above data, following points to be noted:Yamuna river (Delhi stretch)is a dead river with almost zero dissolved oxygen, high amounts of pollutants and no fresh water. How can aquatic life survive under these chemically harsh conditions?The discharge of major drains in the Delhi stretch of the river along with industrial effluents and the pollution levels of Yamuna is alarming.Why does the NGT put the blame on the Art of Living Foundation which has done zero damage to the floodplains and the river?What has NGT done to curb the industrial and human pollution which are harming the river Yamuna?There is a strong judgmental bias in the current NGT report Vs the Art of Living and Others6. Claim 6: Alleging compaction and leveling of the floodplainFacts:Before going to analyse the charges of compaction, it is quintessential that we first define the nature of the land where the event was conducted.According to the report “Environmental flow for monsoon rivers in India-The Yamuna river as a case study”, the Yamuna floodplains has alluvial sandy soil (Reference: Rao, S.V.N., Kumar, S., Shekhar, S., Sinha, S.K. & Manju, S. 2007. Optimal pumping from Skimming Wells from the Yamuna river flood plain in north India. Hydrogeology Journal 15: 1157-1167)According to one of the Expert Committee member-Prof.A.K.Gosain’s earlier published research paper titled- “A new scheme for large-scale natural water storage in the floodplains: the Delhi Yamuna floodplains as a case study”, the author says “the river has been bringing sand from the mountains and depositing it along its basin, forming the floodplains. This accumulated sandy layer exists to an average of depth of 40 m”The report earlier furnished in claim 5 by the expert committee members itself (Can be found here) states that the floodplain near the river Yamuna has “sand and gravel”.Hence, it is a well established fact that the floodplain has sandy soil ! So, can sandy soil be compacted ?Now,given the above data, let us go through some scientific studies about sand compaction and verify the allegations by the NGT.For a confirmatory statement on the extent and exact reason of consolidation and/ or compaction in qualitative and quantitative terms, laboratory test of undisturbed soil samples from the land parcel will be required.By comparing the current soil density with the previous records of soil density over the land parcel,the difference could be worked out.But conducting such a test of unconfined sand/sandy soil appears almost impossible due to the established principles of soil mechanics.Referring to the established principles of soil mechanics and geo-technical engineering from the widely accepted and used textbook for soil mechanics by Prof.V.N.S.Murthy tiled “A Text Book of Soil Mechanics & Foundation Engineering” let us go through the pressure-void ratio curves of sandIn the above curve, it is clearly evident that “ more than 90 % of the compression has taken place within a period of less than 2 minutes. The time lag is largely frictional. The compression is about the same whether the sand is dry or saturated”.“The amount of compression even under high load intensity is not quite significant as can be seen from the curves.”It is obvious that the natural consolidation of this land parcel would have taken place in the geological past immediately after the deposition with some movement of animals and humans over it.It appears from the final report that the expert committee didn’t conduct any geo-technical analysis and not a single report was attached as an annexure to their claim.Verbally saying that they went there and saw the top soil layer become a thick crust is not evidence. There are tests that are legally permitted in the courts of law which the expert committee doesn’t seem to have done.The WCF area occupied ~ 25 hectares of land out of the total 9300 hectares of the floodplain (Approximately 0.26 %)So to exert the high pressure for land compaction it would require numerous heavy weight rollers (which apparently weren’t used by the organizers).Furthermore, the curve for dense sand in ‘Void ratio v/s pressure in kg/sq.cm’ indicates that dense sand (as deposited by the Yamuna and Ganga) does not show noticeable changes with increase in pressure.It is an undeniable fact that this land parcel has been under agricultural practices since decades (if not centuries).Agricultural practices; tilling (harrowing); movement of farms equipment and agricultural machinery; movement of dumpers for unabated dumping of construction waste for years and then the movement for trucks and dumpers for removal of the same has already shaped the consolidation and /or compaction of this land parcel ages before the event of the World Culture Festival 2016 was organized.Moreover, it is important to note that the entire stage for the event was supported by a series of iron scaffolding with raft footing (shown in the figure below)An Engineering Marvel ?Nothing was anchored in the natural stratum to hold the stage, overall the stage had a floating foundation. Can’t believe? have a look at this :Pics: The stage was made of thousands of such scaffolding rods in lattice structure spread across 7.5 acre (stage area)Pic: Scaffolding structure (showing the highest level) used for construction of the stage ; photographed during the removal of the stage.Pic: Steel plate rod used for distribution of the load, without any anchorage in the ground; photographed during the removal of the stage.The stage had negligible impact on the ground. Overall the stage was a floating stage and the impact of a floating stage on sandy soil is insignificant. For the record, no cement foundation was done as can be seen from the pictures.Trivia: The physics behind this stage bears a strong visual analogy with a yogi sleeping on a bed of nails. As a matter of fact, this ancient technique used by hathayogis in India has been a source of inspiration for the design of this stage !Pic: The concept of “Yogi Nail Bed” used as an inspiration for the WCF stage is based on the principle of uniform distribution of weight over a large surface area, therefore the overall impact is extremely low or negligible.Finally, the only court permissible test to determine compaction of soil is the CBR Test (California Bearing Ratio Test). It involves taking soil samples before and after the event and then applying the test. Since the expert committee did not collect any soil samples before and after the event to come up with the alleged 13 cr damage,the Art of Living Foundation themselves requested the NGT to conduct the CBR test at the venue, and the application was duly rejected !Here is the permission letter made by the Art of Living Foundation to the NGT (which was disposed off by the NGT !)The Chairman of the Expert Committee of the NGT Mrs.Shashi Shekhar (IAS) (Ministry of Water Resouces, Govt. of India)even goes out to the extent of saying the compensation of 120 cr put forth on the Art of Living foundation as ad-hoc and unscientific and not based on any scientific assessments. The Chairman does not even endorse the compensation.Also, it is important to see whether the NGT conducted any scientific studies before quantifying the damage if any ?It would be very astounding for the reader to realize that no such thing was done. Only a mere “visual inspection” was conducted by the Expert Committee members of the NGT at the venue on the 6th of June 2016(Singular visit).And no scientific evidence and data samples have been provided by the NGT Expert Committee in the Court of Law.That’s like going to a doctor who after just glancing at your direction hands you a list of ailments he assesses that you suffer from and proceeds to slap you with a fat bill for your future treatments !It is surprising to believe that the Chairman of the Expert Committee Mr.Shashi Shekhar has distanced himself from the committee’s recommendations. The Chairman’s signature is also missing from the final report. And only 4 out the 7 Expert Committee members have signed the final report !7. Claim 7: Going from ecological “restoration” to ecological “rehabilitation” of the floodplainFacts:Throughout the first report, the Expert Committee members of the NGT have used the term “restoration” and in the final report they use the word “rehablitation”Why the sudden switch?Because, the NGT Expert Committee cannot prove any damage that was done to the floodplain and the environment by the event.In their final report this is what they state:It is not possible for the ‘Expert Committee’ to assess the ecological status of the site before and after the event? This was their primary job in the first place !Also, the committee points out that it is extremely difficult to assess the costs of environment damage and degradation accurately because“it requires substantial time, human and other resources to collect detailed quantitative information on the nature, extend and magnitude of various activities listed earlier for restoration”That’s a clever way of saying that they cannot prove the damage quantitatively and qualitatively and hence the question of restoration is redundant.They also go on to state that “estimation of the costs of restoration requires the preparation of a Detailed Project Report that may take several months to a year besides financial resources.”Who can buy that argument? Why was the Expert Panel commissioned in the first place?Moreover, the Expert Committee states that it has now decided to “REHABILITATE THE IMPACTED SITE”.The NGT’s proposed plan includes creating a bio diversity park, two large water bodies, three tier planting of vegetation,and establishing new sewage treatment plants,etcLet’s put things into perspective, firstly, the Committee says that it cannot prove any damage scientifically. Consequently they cannot assign costs to restore damage. Hence, they wish to switch the narrative from being a “restoration cost” to “rehabilitation cost”. And moreover, they wish to build a utopian biodiversity park for which the Art of Living should bear the cost ! (Slow claps !) Wait, I am not yet done !In order to build this dream park, the Expert Committee has submitted a ‘Budget’ for building this park. The budget lists ‘Salaries and Consultancies’ as a cost component to monitor and supervise the construction. This cost component totals up to 7 CRORE RUPEES ! Here is their estimations !That’s not all friends. The NGT Expert Committee even goes on record to state that “rehabilitation” will take a period of 10 years and the expert committee members have nominated themselves to undertake this project as “Consultants”(Indeed a very sly way of pocketing the 7 crore!)In the final analysis,the expert committee members in their final report state that they are unable to differentiate the activities required to restore the floodplain and the activities to undo the alleged damage due to the event. That is a very clever way of saying that they cannot differentiate the damage done to the floodplain before the event and the damage done by the event.As this article says,“The Art of Living case will go down as a test for environment activism in the country. The nation expects the NGT will gather enough courage to call the bluff of the committee and go by the merits of the case”.References:http://delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/55a9380047b2199a9155d5bdc775c0fb/Final_Report_NGT-Yamuna_Restoration%2B(11-4-2014).pdf?MOD=AJPERES&lmod=-287594179https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1306/1306.2709.pdfhttp://www.cpcb.nic.in/newitems/11.pdfDelhi Development AuthorityTextbook of Soil Mechanics and Foundation EngineeringGoogle Earth – Google EarthNational Green TribunalHomepage | Ramsarflood plainCentral Pollution Control Board :::https://www.artofliving.org/in-en/newsroom/press-statement/independent-environmentalist-statement-ngt-reporthttp://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/2edvol3d.pdfWill NGT call the Yamuna expert panel's bluff?Written by:Soham D’SouzaBachelors in Chemical Technology-Institute of Chemical Technology (former UDCT) , MumbaiMumbai

Here's two lists of sucky things I was exchanging with a fellow jar head around ‘09–10 I believe…1. Dickhead with shaved legs telling me to take my hat out of my pocket.2. Okinawa H&R Block ZERO help with tax amendment (isn't that their whole purpose?)3. The Corps is full of huge nerds & douchebags and I hate looking at all of them.4. Wrestling and basket ball dominating the already terrible AFN.5. Capt Bayse6. Chowhall out of eggs at breakfast...really? WTF?7. Oki chowhall workers closing down the italian line 30 min prior to chowhall closing.8. Some doucher totally unrelated to my profession has authority over me and just because he renlisted a few times probably because he was too fucking dumb or scared to do anything else with his life, he demands respect,9. I will not risk another combat-less enlistment10. Babysitting young Marines that shouldn't be at a recon bn in the first place.11. Every single aspect of the 31st MEU.12. 3rd "Force" and the non-rates that claim the FR title. They should get beat up.13. SSgt Cole14. School failures (multiple) being allowed in teams, and in some cases, leading them.15. Gross incompetence16. Sub 285 pft has become not only acceptable, but the norm.17. Shitbag 06xx support18. The "2 year Oki tour" scam.19. Too slow, infrequent, and unreliable deployment schedule.20. Teams and entire platoons being formed an disbanded at the cyclic.21. Safety interferes with good training.22. The utter confusion Gunny Ayala had with interpreting an email I sent him asking what the status of my missing gear statement was.23. The fact I can't get on ebay from this computer to order some gear I need to check out.24. having to look at military most wives. Blechh1. .Inadequate pay2. Not being treated like a human3. lowest funded in the us military.4. yut-yuts5. Haircuts (Motivators get very angry when you hair line doesn't start half way up your head.)6. Mass Punishment. (If one guy gets in trouble everyone gets punished for his mistake).7. Okinawa Lock down8. Uniform Inspections9. USMC boots are horrible.10. Boot bands (If not worn on ops they can keep you from doing combat operations in the future).11. no Smagues / balaclavas on combat ops.12. Tattoo policy13. shaving every day14. Making me sleep in asbestos filled warehouses and barracks knowing the potential risk of lung cancer.15. Field day16. room inspections17. random room inspections.18. The alcohol policy in okinawa. E1-E3 only a 6 pack E4-E5 only a 12.19. Gold and red liberty policy20. Motorcycle PPE21. Afn commercials insulting your basic intelligence.(AFN NEWS IS STRAIGHT UP PROPAGANDA).22. Higher ups talking down to me and insulting my intelligence simply because i am a lower rank regardless of my billet or experience.23. No head Phones while running on base.24. Reflective belts required while running at night, and even during the day until 0800 when the sun is up and everyone can see you.25. No personal accountability- ( goes under micro manageing)26. No rated marines in the chain of command. (IE. Admin 1stSGT in a Recon battalion in charge of recon marines. ( in the NAVY SEAL community everyone is a SEAL)27. **** IDEOLOGY THAT EVER MARINE IS THE SAME*****28. all female marines.29. camp leatherneck30. bootcamp is joke31. standing by32. broken overused gear.33. Worthless medical care. (remember you skin condition in Okinawa and how they did nothing, but give you cream when you needed more than just cream. You went home, got a shot and it went away in a couple days. )34. Improper employment (8 man R&S)35. Chow hall workers denying you food.36. work never ends because you take it home with you.37. SNCO's Like chief Warner.38. Theater level commanders telling the world press about when our next operations, were will be, and what we will be conducting. Taliban in return responds with laying IED's and leaving the premises.39. A so called brother hood back stabs more so then the civilian world. When you get into trouble out in town and the marine corps finds out about, they will punish you by taking away your, pay, and other personal liberties, on top of the ticket you have to pay or whatever the case may be. ( Remember being lied to and told you would go to Iraq and stay in Okinawa for 1 year, but the40. day you get your orders and leave for oki, they say 2 years on them. )41. Enforcing Quantico's dress code for 3 months all because some Col. saw us at the airport in narrita on leave coming back to oki after NV, with no shaves, holes in pants, and baseball caps. (Punishment by the masses, Higher ups need to mind their own business in civilian attire).42. Full PPE on R&S.43. Micromanagement and on the spot corrections.44. Taking risks when risks dont need to be taken, or vice versa.45. No distinguishing device or credibility for special operations jobs in the USMC like Recon, Snipers, & MSOB.46. No hands in your pockets.47. Cant walk and talk on a cell phone.48. cant walk and eat49. cant walk and drink.50. Corrections in civilian attire. (' Your wife (a civilian mind you) is not in proper civilian attire because her midriff is showing.)51. Higher ups expecting you to know their rank in civilian attire.52. Higher ups enforcing rules, but they themselves don't follow them, or bend them. (IE. PPE, air mattress in the field during combat, black silkies and flip flops while on a mission.)53. People making life and death decisions not based on experience or training.54. Force extensions on contracts.55. Stop loss56. Activating inactive reserve for critical billets.57. Gove Charge card ruining credit, because the govt doesn't reimburse you.58. DTS being a nightmare and unreliable.59. POGS60. Legitimate brain washing (starts at bootcamp).61. Misuse of personnel in tasking (IE. Phantom, who is and admin clerk, all the sudden being a driver in a combat mission, where he has no experience, in return he got his ISS stuck numerous times which delayed the vehicle movement 4 hours and could have gotten marines killed, due to the nature of being out in the open stationary. )62. Losing mail and not reimbursing.63. Health and comfort inspections.64. forced vaccinations, which have numerous mercury derivatives in them.65. inadequate water on base. ( Camp lejune having high amounts of lead in their water, which caused many birth defects in new borns.)66. Drill instructors.67. safety stand downs68. forced family fun day69. forced to buy USMC ball tickets which range from 50-100$.70. Treating grown men like children.71. formations.72. liberty briefs.73. liberty incidents, which results in punishing the masses.74. Forced MCI's75. Marine common skills test.76. colors every day.77. Japanese colors.78. No ball caps in civilian attire indoors.79. No unit distinguishment.(unit patches, patches on kit)80. restricted PT gear.81. Yelling at people in the chow hall, or causing scenes in public places due to things like haircuts, or uniforms no being up to par with some higher ups personal standards.82. Fire watch when its not needed. ( Camp Schwab barracks- every floor had 2 fire watches, because someone set a motorcycle on fire. IE punishment by the masses.)83. Japanese gate guards denying a US military member entry on a us military base because his Japanese car inspections stickers were not up to date. Japanese gate guards being very difficult to deal with.84. Japanese working on a us military base.85. JCI86. rotting in Okinawa87. forced separation from family.88. Grown men tattle tailing.89. Weak people falling out of PT and not being dealt with.90. Fat Marines being allowed to wear the uniform and interpretors.91. dumb marines.92. bad stereo types of marines.93. no pt gear in the chow hall.94. no board shorts in places like the PX.95. no common sense (IE. Forcing hurt marines to PT when they are legitimately hurt.)96. Marine Corps air being unreliable.97. Ridiculous rules of engagement.98. Being denied extract in a hostile area.99. CIF being very difficult.100. USMC rifle range being stupid, outdated, and by the numbers.101. Gear SOP's102. No shooter preference for gear.103. bad experiences out way the good experiences 10 fold.104. cost of haircuts- 5 to12 $.105. USMC has the worst retention rate of all military services and you wonder why.106. USMC teaches you to believe everything the GOVT. tells you no matter what the circumstances.107. Marine Corps doesn't want you to think freely and allow you to use critical thinking, instead they want you to follow orders and be motivated no matter what the circumstance.108. The way boots dress, like bloused blue jeans and a high and tight.109. 15 min prior to 15 min prior.110. Recon haters, and the ones that hate recon because they tried out and failed.111. You can eat pie and cake all day in the chowhall, but when it comes to getting another serving of lean meat you will get shut down.112. Doing the same paper work numerous times, because people lost the origionals.113. Sitting out in Okinawa doing com shots in the jungle for no reason all day long sweating your balls off.114. ORM worksheets.115. Vehicle Inspections before 96's116. Piss tests while another man stares at you to insure you pee in a cup.117. Random piss tests.118. wall locker inspection119. Chinese field day120. moving furniture into condemned barracks.121. High ups making basic life difficult, because it was difficult for them when they were a lower rank.122. Being required to get a tatical drivers license in Afghanistan123. Drivers license courses taking presidence over combat operations.124. false motivation125. never being afforded the opportunity to become mildly proficient in your individual capabilities(IE. Jumping, Sniping, Diving, Shooting, DA, Amphib, Tracking.)126. Doing dry runs over and over again during live fire IA drills.127. COMM being heavy outdated old technology. ( A kid can do more with a cell phone than we can do with our big clunky expensive radios. )128. Govt contracts that should bedone away with( IE. Harris, Knights Armament, Humvee, Sudusco, Colt.)129. Position of attention or parade rest when being talked to by some other higher ranked human being.130. Barracks duty, OOD.131. Making marines shave in the field. ( Health risk)132. To nice to detainees.133. Winning hearts and minds is not effective in our mission.134. Sunglasses not being allowed on your head.135. T shirts being required to wear when its hot and sunny, When the rules clearly state that you dont have to wear a t shirt.136. Clearing my gun and not being in condition one while in afghanistan.137. Being forced to carry a gun everywhere on camp leatherneck without bullets.138. Colonels are driven by politics and their agendas.139. 50's era standard of fitness.140. High amounts of fat in chow hall food (IE chicken breast being cooked in a pool of butter, crisco all over scrambled eggs).141. Company PT.142. The saying , " ITS GOOD ENOUGH FOR CHESTY".143. No night raids in a combat zone.144. Valuing property over human life.145. Sending Useable good gear to DERMO, which is wasteful government spending, ( IE. 100's OF NEW and USED PEQ 15's ($1500 each) being sent to dermo, all because we got new PEQ-16's in.)146. NATO bases!!147. Major Dority selling out Cpt. Kinkade, so that he could possibly get a court martial all because this major didn't want to own up for his own actions.148. The 3rd recon liberty buddy policy, based on rank, not age.149. Pin flare reports.150. Marines can't have nice things.151. Improper leave request standards.152. Only Platoon levels and below adhere to time lines

BlameThe "blame" feature in Git describes the last modification to each line of a file, which generally displays the revision, author and time. This is helpful, for example, in tracking down when a feature was added, or which commit led to a particular bug.BranchA branch is a parallel version of a repository. It is contained within the repository, but does not affect the primary or master branch allowing you to work freely without disrupting the "live" version. When you've made the changes you want to make, you can merge your branch back into the master branch to publish your changes.CloneA clone is a copy of a repository that lives on your computer instead of on a website's server somewhere, or the act of making that copy. With your clone you can edit the files in your preferred editor and use Git to keep track of your changes without having to be online. It is, however, connected to the remote version so that changes can be synced between the two. You can push your local changes to the remote to keep them synced when you're online.CollaboratorA collaborator is a person with read and write access to a repository who has been invited to contribute by the repository owner.CommitA commit, or "revision", is an individual change to a file (or set of files). It's like when you save a file, except with Git, every time you save it creates a unique ID (a.k.a. the "SHA" or "hash") that allows you to keep record of what changes were made when and by who. Commits usually contain a commit message which is a brief description of what changes were made.ContributorA contributor is someone who has contributed to a project by having a pull request merged but does not have collaborator access.DiffA diff is the difference in changes between two commits, or saved changes. The diff will visually describe what was added or removed from a file since its last commit.FetchFetching refers to getting the latest changes from an online repository without merging them in. Once these changes are fetched you can compare them to your local branches (the code residing on your local machine).ForkA fork is a personal copy of another user's repository that lives on your account. Forks allow you to freely make changes to a project without affecting the original. Forks remain attached to the original, allowing you to submit a pull request to the original's author to update with your changes. You can also keep your fork up to date by pulling in updates from the original.GitGit is an open source program for tracking changes in text files. It was written by the author of the Linux operating system, and is the core technology that GitHub, the social and user interface, is built on top of.IssueIssues are suggested improvements, tasks or questions related to the repository. Issues can be created by anyone (for public repositories), and are moderated by repository collaborators. Each issue contains its own discussion forum, can be labeled and assigned to a user.MarkdownMarkdown is a simple semantic file format, not too dissimilar from .doc, .rtf and .txt. Markdown makes it easy for even those without a web-publishing background to write prose (including with links, lists, bullets, etc.) and have it displayed like a website. GitHub supports Markdown, and you can learn about the semantics.MergeMerging takes the changes from one branch (in the same repository or from a fork), and applies them into another. This often happens as a pull request (which can be thought of as a request to merge), or via the command line. A merge can be done automatically via a pull request via the GitHub web interface if there are no conflicting changes, or can always be done via the command line. For more information, see "Merging a pull request."Open sourceOpen source software is software that can be freely used, modified, and shared (in both modified and unmodified form) by anyone. Today the concept of "open source" is often extended beyond software, to represent a philosophy of collaboration in which working materials are made available online for anyone to fork, modify, discuss, and contribute to.For more information on open source, specifically how to create and grow an open source project, we've created Open Source Guides that will help you foster a healthy open source community.OrganizationsOrganizations are shared accounts where businesses and open-source projects can collaborate across many projects at once. Owners and administrators can manage member access to the organization's data and projects with sophisticated security and administrative features.Private repositoryPrivate repositories are repositories that can only be viewed or contributed to by their creator and collaborators the creator specified.PullPull refers to when you are fetching in changes and merging them. For instance, if someone has edited the remote file you're both working on, you'll want to pull in those changes to your local copy so that it's up to date.Pull requestPull requests are proposed changes to a repository submitted by a user and accepted or rejected by a repository's collaborators. Like issues, pull requests each have their own discussion forum. For more information, see "About pull requests."PushPushing refers to sending your committed changes to a remote repository, such as a repository hosted on GitHub. For instance, if you change something locally, you'd want to then push those changes so that others may access them.RemoteThis is the version of something that is hosted on a server, most likely GitHub. It can be connected to local clones so that changes can be synced.RepositoryA repository is the most basic element of GitHub. They're easiest to imagine as a project's folder. A repository contains all of the project files (including documentation), and stores each file's revision history. Repositories can have multiple collaborators and can be either public or private.SSH keySSH keys are a way to identify yourself to an online server, using an encrypted message. It's as if your computer has its own unique password to another service. GitHub uses SSH keys to securely transfer information to your computerGLOSSARY· index, staging area: This is a 'cache' between your worktree and your repository. You can add changes to the index and build your next commit step by step. When your index content is to your likes you can create a commit from it. Also used to keep information during failed merges (your side, their side and current state)· clone: A clone of a repository ("just another repository") or the act of doing so ("to clone a repository (creates a new clone)")· commit: A state of your project at a certain time. Contains a pointer to its parent commit (in case of a merge: multiple parents) and a pointer to the directory structure at this point in time.· branch: A different line of development. A branch in git is just a "label" which points to a commit. You can get the full history through the parent pointers. A branch by default is only local to your repository.· tree: Basically speaking a directory. It's just a list of files (blobs) and subdirectories (trees). (The list may also contain commits in case you use submodules, but that's an advanced topic)· upstream: After cloning a repository you often call that "original" repository "upstream". In git it's aliased to origin· a head: The top commit of a branch (commit the label points to)· HEAD: A symbolic name to describe the currently checked out commit. Often the topmost commit· version: Might be the same as a commit. Could also mean a released version of your project.· tag: A descriptive name given to one of your commits (or trees, or blobs). Can also contain a message (eg. changelog). Tags can be cryptographically signed with GPG.· archive: An simple archive (.tar, .zip), nothing special wrt git.· patch: A commit exported to text format. Can be sent by email and applied by other users. Contains the original auther, commit message and file differences· submission: no idea. Submitting a patch to a project maybe?· changeset: Synonym for "commit"· stash: Git allows you to "stash away" changes. This gives you a clean working tree without any changes. Later they can be "popped" to be brought back. This can be a life saver if you need to temporarily work on an unrelated change (eg. time critical bug fix)· object: can be one of commit, tree, blob, tag. An object has associated its SHA1 hash by which it is referenced (the commit with id deadbeaf, the tree decaf). The hash is identical between all repositories that share the same object. It also garuantees the integrity of a repository: you cannot change past commits without changing the hashes of all child commits.· (module,) submodule: A repository included in another repository (eg. external library). Advanced stuff.· revspec: A revspec (or revparse expression) describes a certain git object or a set of commits through what is called the extended SHA1 syntax (eg. HEAD, master~4^2, origin/master..HEAD, deadbeaf^!, …)· refspec: A refspec is pattern describing the mapping to be done between remote and local references during Fetch or Push operations· history: Describes all ancestor commits prior to a commit going back to the first commit.