Five years after issuing an order for freeing the Yamuna floodplains from encroachments, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and the Forest Department over non-compliance. The tribunal bench comprising chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava observed, “After that order of the Tribunal, more than five years have passed, but till now the order has not been complied with.” In the 22-km stretch between Wazirabad and Okhla in Delhi where Yamuna flows, the DDA and other agencies were directed to remove encroachments in the floodplains in a 2019 order passed by the NGT and an April order last year by the Delhi High Court. Citing various other orders, including a writ petition titled, ‘Shabnam Burney vs Union of India & Ors’, wherein the petitioner sought directions to remove illegal encroachments in the Yamuna floodplains, the HC — in its interim order in April last year — directed the DDA Vice Chairman to remove all encroachments and illegal construction on the Yamuna river bank, river bed and …