Were the Isha Yoga Center buildings put up without approval?
The claim
The claim is not that the land is forest. It is that the buildings at Ikkarai Boluvampatti went up without Hill Area Conservation Authority approval, and that a panchayat permission was not enough.
What the 2021 reports said
Newslaundry reported on 17 May 2021 that, in this hill area, construction over 300 square metres needs HACA approval. From records it said it obtained, the campus was built on 63,380 square metres between 1994 and 2011, plus an artificial lake of 1,406 square metres, without that approval. Isha had told the paper it had panchayat permission for about 32,855 square metres. The report said the panchayat cannot authorise construction in a HACA area. It also said Isha applied to HACA in July 2011, after several structures were already up, for the existing 63,380 square metres and a further 28,582 square metres.
Four days later Newslaundry reported an Isha application dated 12 April 2018 to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority. The sentence it quoted from that application: the foundation had constructed its development without prior environmental clearance, violating the EIA notification of 2006, and was seeking post-construction approval. The authority, in a meeting on 20 March 2020, asked for compliance reports from the Public Works Department, HACA and the principal chief conservator of forests. Newslaundry said Isha then asked to withdraw the application. The same report said the campus has 68 structures on a 4,87,418 square metre plot.
Isha's FAQ says there are no illegal constructions, that requisite approvals have been obtained for all the buildings, and that the Tamil Nadu government said so in a 2021 RTI reply. News18, on 11 December 2021, reported that RTI on forest encroachment and the corridor, not a line-by-line building approval. The building-approval RTI itself is not in the news text.
Adiyogi is a separate permission
The Hindu reported on 2 September 2023 that the Madras High Court had told the district town and country planning department to act if permissions for the 112-foot Adiyogi were found illegal. The department's status report said it had no documents of Isha seeking permission or a no-objection for that construction. Isha's spokesperson, C.R. Dinesh Raja, said Adiyogi is an idol, not a building, so DTCP and HACA were not the approving authority, and that the district collector is. He said he showed a collector's approval at the press conference. Isha's FAQ says the idol also has a no-objection from the district forest officer.
Still missing: the 2021 RTI that Isha says confirms building approvals, the collector's order for Adiyogi, and the HACA file. Without those, the page can report the dispute. It cannot close it.
Sources
- Newslaundry, 17 May 2021
- Newslaundry, 21 May 2021, the SEIAA application
- The Hindu, 2 Sep 2023, Adiyogi
- Isha FAQ, 19 Mar 2026