While welcoming the consultative process initiated by the Ministry for Environment and Forests by issuing a pre-draft notification on the proposed Coastal Zone Regulation Notification 2010 and also translating it in coastal languages, we however, are forced to reject the pre-draft on grounds that it is contrary to the aspirations and demands made by Fishworkers groups and other organisations working on issues related to Indian coast land.
The pre-draft notification has failed to address the two main issues raised by Fishworkers groups and other organisations, i.e. to strengthen the coastal regulations for long term protection of coastal ecosystems and secondly to recognise and guarantee the rights of the fishing communities to their habitats.
The pre-draft notification, it appears is aimed at weakening the coastal protection regime rather than strengthening it and this is sought to be done through the various nefarious provisions of the notification which aim at legitimising all previous dilutions of CRZ 1991 notification besides leaving loopholes for future encroachments on coastal lands for pecuniary gains of the few at the cost of the traditional occupations of many.
It is quite apparent that the pre-draft notification seeks to legalise all the irregularities committed since the 1991 notification and this is sought to be done through the reclassification of the coastal zones, which calls for redrawing the coastal zone management plans whereby earlier designated CRZ-I areas can now be reclassified as CRZ-II or CRZ-III.
Even though the pre-draft acknowledges the fact that 25 per cent of the country’s population lives within 50 kms of the coast, it provides for setting up nuclear power plants within this area that is densely populated. This is just one of the many instances where the rights of the coastal inhabitants are sought to be trampled upon rather than being upheld.
Besides, it permits non polluting IT industries and SEZ even in CRZ-1 areas. Pollution is merely one aspect, such permissions could result in heavy industrialisation of the coastline and the possibility of mega housing projects in the name of SEZ cannot be ruled out.
The pre-draft notification gives blanket exemption for power generation by non-conventional sources in non CRZ-1 areas. Permitting wave energy or tidal energy plants is acceptable but why all non-conventional energy sources is the question. Similarly, the 1991 notification did not provide for storage of petroleum products, fertilizers and chemical in non-CRZ-1 areas as is done in the present pre-draft notification.
Similarly, while permitting power plants (nuclear and thermal) along the coastline, the adverse impact on environment and coastal ecology has totally been ignored. The impact of the jetties, the result of drawing large quantities of water for cooling such plants and subsequent release of heated water in the sea has not at all been considered.
The pre-draft notification also permits the Greenfield airport in New Mumbai and that too in an area that is currently under mangrove cover which is designated as an eco-sensitive zone.
Tourism related development along the coastline has been a contentious issue given the fact that tourist resorts have been permitted within the No Development Zone on a mere condition that they are permitted in designated areas. Ironically the designated areas have not been identified as a result of which any beach is open for development in the name of tourism.
As if the opening left for tourism related development was not sufficient, the pre-draft notification also provides for housing colonies to come up along the coastline with the State Coastal Zone Management Authorities being given the powers to clear housing projects of up to 20,000 sq mts. Given the manner in which the SCZMA have been functioning, one can well imagine what will happen to our coastline in the near future.
The only positive aspect in the pre-draft notification is the provision for regulating coastal protection measures which will hopefully put an end to the “sea walls’ being constructed without any scientific study and merely at the whims and fancies of the powers that be.
As stated earlier, the pre-draft notification totally fails to protect the rights and livelihood of the coastal inhabitants including the fishing community and seeks to only throw open more and more coastal areas for development. One such instance is the manner in which it provides for development of ports only on the basis of erosion without given any consideration to the cumulative effect of such development including the displacement of fishing communities.
What is most shocking is that the pre-draft provision permits setting up of SEZ within the CRZ areas. This is a brazen display of lack of sensitivity to people’s aspirations as SEZ have been opposed in different parts of the country and now they are proposed to be set up within the CRZ areas!
The pre-draft notification also provides for drawing the ‘Hazard Line’ which is a truly haphazard provision. The parameters for drawing this line are vague and it is silent on what kind of regulations will apply to the area that will come within the landward side or seaward side of this so called hazard line. The greatest fear is that using the hazard line, wherever it is towards the sea side, the ‘No Development Zone’ will be thrown open for development on grounds that there is no danger in doing so and this will spell a death blow to our cliffs and high lands along the coastline, which are quite prized properties for the rich and the mighty wanting their abodes facing the sea.
Although aquatic areas are included in the notification for management, there is absolutely no application of mind of how these areas are going to be managed except for a provision not to let out untreated sewage in these areas. While the notification is silent on the rights of the traditional inhabitants of areas abutting these aquatic areas, it has fortunately prohibited reclamation of these areas.
The special dispensation given to certain geographical locations which are classified under a new Coastal Regulation Zone is once again haphazardly done. In fact some of the recommendations made for these specific geographical locations are applicable for the entire coastline and should in fact be made mandatory all over the country. Besides, under special dispensation pipe dreams are provided for like roads on stilts in order to protect the mangroves raising the question whether this is really feasible.
One of the biggest drawbacks of the pre-draft notification is the exclusion of the island territories. Even though the government has come out with a separate notification with regards to the Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep island groups, the question of various other islands that dot our coastline has not been addressed making one wonder whether these individual islands will be auctioned to the highest bidder to have as their personal trophies?
The sections pertaining to implementation of the CRZ provisions once again indicate that the government has not taken the ground reality into account but merely come out with a notification that sounds good on paper but cannot be implemented. Lessons learnt over the last nearly decade in implementing the 1991 notification have totally been ignored and time-frames have been set up that are not practical and not feasible which will in effect turn the CRZ 2010 into nothing but yet another paper tiger.
The Ministry has displayed total insensitivity by ignoring the aspirations of the coastal people. Their rights over the land and their right to livelihood have not been considered at all and instead the pre-draft notification remains stuck in the same old rut of merely providing some concessions to these communities.
What is shocking that the pre-draft notification provisions reveal that there is no real place for fishermen in CRZ-I and CRZ-II and where they will be rehabilitated is not mentioned. What is more disturbing is that by throwing open the coastline for development, the traditional occupants of the country’s coastline are sought to be hounded out of their ancestral habitats by outsiders.
Thomas Kocherry
Special Invitee
Email: thomasksa@gmail.com
Mobile: 9360645772
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