“Listen man…listen to me, every law that is there in the country has been followed. If there is any discrepancy, we fixed it. Long time ago, 20 years ago… some small discrepancy… we have fixed it. There was something some 20 years ago, and we have fixed it.”
This was yoga and spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev, also known as Sadhguru, speaking to a BBC Tamil journalist in June 2022. The journalist had asked about a controversy surrounding Isha foundation, a not-for-profit organisation Jaggi had founded in 1992. More specifically, the journalist’s question pertained to the foundation’s headquarters in Coimbatore, known as the Isha Yoga Center.
The straggling campus is spread out across 4.87 lakh square metres and comprises several buildings, most of which were constructed between 1994 and 2012. Located in Ikkarai Boluvampatti, a village at the base of the Velliangiri Hills, this center lies adjacent to the Bolampatty Reserve Forest, an elephant habitat. Typically, any construction in the region is heavily regulated by both the state and central governments.
Yet, Isha Foundation erected much of its Coimbatore empire without obtaining the necessary government approvals, alleged local activists and officials. The BBC journalist wanted to know why. Jaggi wasn’t playing ball. A 20-year-old “small discrepancy” relating to these alleged violations had already been fixed, Jaggi said. The interview abruptly ended soon after. The news channel flashed a message: “At this point, those who were with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev forcibly stopped recording of three cameras.”
The interview—and Jaggi’s refusal to answer journalistic queries—were a flashpoint in a longer saga. By then, Isha Foundation’s environmental track record had already attracted public curiosity and attention. Its procedural violations had real-world consequences on the surrounding ecosystem, critics said. Previous investigations have noted that the many buildings at Isha Foundation’s campus and the throng of visitors they attract have obstructed the elephant corridor over time.
Some authorities looked the other way; others tried to escalate action with limited success. This is the story of one such case in the Madras High Court involving the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and Isha Foundation.
When the incomplete BBC Tamil interview was telecast in June 2022, the case was ongoing but the court had not yet delivered its verdict. By December that year, it ruled in favour of Isha Foundation. It quashed a TNPCB show-cause notice to the foundation and held that the organisation did not need to obtain an Environment Clearance (EC) for earlier construction at its headquarters. In February 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the Madras HC’s decision.
Although it is not very widely known, the public record reflects that the Madras HC’s decision—which the SC affirmed—relied on two clarifications issued by officials from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. These clarifications validated Isha Foundation’s position. What is not known is why the ministry issued one of these clarifications.
Previously unreported documents reveal that at least one government intervention was prompted by a request that an Isha Foundation representative sent to the union environment ministry while the case in the Madras HC was ongoing. The documents reviewed by TNM include the letter the Isha Foundation representative sent; file notes of internal discussions among the ministry’s scientists about the request; correspondence between officials from the education and environment ministries; as well as an affidavit that the environment ministry filed in this case.
To understand what this clarification request pertained to, some background. The Madras HC decision in favour of Isha Foundation hinged, in large part, on certain interpretations of an amendment that the environment ministry had made in 2014.
The 2014 amendment related to the process of getting an Environment Clearance, or an EC. This is a regulatory approval granted to development or industrial projects after a rigorous screening process outlined in the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006, which draws its legal powers from the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The amendment exempted educational institutions from seeking an EC for their projects.
