The Isha Foundation has refuted allegations of illegally constructing the 112-foot Adiyogi statue at its yoga centre in Ikkarai Boluvampatti, Coimbatore, without necessary approvals.
This follows a recent direction by the Madras High Court in which the district town and country planning (DTCP) department was ordered to take appropriate action if illegalities were found in permissions given to the Foundation. The DTCP had earlier filed a status report stating that no documents pertaining to Isha Foundation seeking permission or obtaining a no-objection certificate for the construction were in its office.
Addressing a press conference in Chennai on Saturday, C.R. Dinesh Raja, spokesperson of Isha Foundation, said Adiyogi was an idol and not a building and that the DTCP or the Hill Area Conservation Authority (HACA) were not the authority to give approval for idols. “The District Collector has the authority to grant permission to install the idol. It does not fall within the permissible range of DTCP. That is why DTCP has mentioned in the court that they do not have any documents.”
Mr. Raja presented a series of documents including the approval from District Collector and information received through Right to Information (RTI) Act. One of the RTIs dated September 27, 2021 said, “no encroachments in the forest land by the Isha Foundation and Isha Yoga Centre.” He further said that allegations of the Foundation encroaching on 44.30 acres of land were false.
In 2012, the then District Forest Officer of Coimbatore division had denied HACA approval to the Foundation for constructing buildings noting that the compound wall of the ashram and front gate were built from the forest land and the constant visitors would disturb elephant habitat. Mr. Raja, however, stressed that there was no elephant corridor in Coimbatore notified by the State as per information from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. Notably, the Wildlife Trust of India had identified a potential corridor (Bolampatti block III-block II corridor) in 2015 which has not yet come to fruition.
