CRZ Notification 2010: A bundle of contradictions

Indian Coastal Regulation Zone Notifications created new conflictual situations to Indian fishers.
This is a response from NFF Chair Person Mathany Saldhana.


The pre-draft notification of Coastal Regulation Zone 2010 published by the Ministry of Environment and Forests is nothing but a sleight of the hand to deceive the people from its pre-decided agenda of opening coastal lands for big investments and therefore needs to be rejected outright in its present form.
The various consultations held by the ministry with even the Minister Ramesh Jairam attending some of them, has proven to be nothing but a smokescreen as the recommendations at these consultations are not at all reflected in the pre-draft notification.
At all the consultations, the strident demand was that the new notification while strengthening the coastal regulations for long term protection of coastal ecosystems, should also recognise and protect the rights of the coastal inhabitants not only to their habitats but also to their livelihoods.
The pre-draft notification has totally neglected this aspect of recognising the rights of coastal inhabitants and continues to be in the time wrap of only offering them concessions. Hence it is obvious that the various consultations were merely used to provide a forum for aggrieved persons to ventilate their grievances and no cognisance was taken of the issue raised as the recommendations made at the consultations are not reflected in the pre-draft notification except for initiating the consultative process.
The pre-draft notification is indeed a bundle of contradictions. It acknowledges that 25 per cent of the country’s population live along the coastline and yet permits hazardous and life threatening nuclear plants along the coastline. It admits that there have been many violations of the earlier coastal regulations and yet provides for regularising those. It speaks about preserving the coastal ecology and environment and yet permits housing colonies, industries and even SEZ in the coastal zone.
The blanket permissions given for certain activities along the coastline are bound to affect not only the people living there but also the very topography of the country’s coastline. Power generating units are permitted along the coastline which includes thermal power plants. The impact of drawing huge amounts of water from the sea and then releasing warm water into the sea has not been considered at all. This activity is bound to affect the marine life which is already being depleted not only in our country but worldwide. Besides, even coal based plants are permitted along the coastline. The pollution caused by this raw material need not be elaborated upon as those who have eyes have seen it.
What is shocking is that besides permitting various questionable activities along the coastline, the pre-draft notification also permits ancillary units to support these activities. This means that housing colonies ostensibly to provide quarters to the people employed at the various units, will be permitted thus throwing open the coastline for housing projects.
Besides, housing projects have also been permitted along the coastline and the State Coastal Zone Management Authorities are empowered to sanction projects involving 20,000 square metres of land. This is a travesty as the pre-draft notification admits that the State CZMAs have not been able to implement the earlier Coastal Regulation Zone Notification!
That the pre-draft notification is aimed at opening the coastal areas for construction activity is further evident in the exemptions given to the tourism industry. Most of the violations of the existing Coastal Regulation Zone are relating to tourism industry and yet the ministry without taking cognisance of their earlier misdeeds apparently wants to give them more opportunities to exploit the coastal areas at the cost of the local people.
Ports have also been given a go ahead with only one proviso – that they do not come in areas threatened by erosion. However, the cumulative effect of ports is not taken into account and the effect of constructing wharfs, jetties, etc., on the water that is forced to change its course and the result of that on the coastline is not at all considered. More significantly, that marine vessels cause pollution at Ports has not even crossed the minds of the ministry officials who prepared the pre-draft.
The leeway granted to ports, would embolden the Mormugao Port Trust in Goa to aggressively press for its expansion plans which would spell a death knell for not only the local fishing community that is sought to be displaced and dispossessed of their habitats and areas of operations, but also to the tourism industry that is keeping the State afloat.
MPT proposes to develop two bays – the Vasco bay where the local fishing community resides and also has their jetty to carry out their fishing activities and the Baina bay where people go to relax and enjoy the sea.
The impact of developing jetties in these bays by reclaiming large tracts of land under water has not been studied given the fact that the displaced water will have to be find some other place and this would adversely affect the hydrology of the area and result in changing the coastline to the north and south of the port but the two main rivers of Goa – the Mandovi and Zuari would also be impacted.
Under special dispensation, Goa has been included, but the sops offered are insignificant. In the first place, the pre-draft notification stresses the need to preserve khazan lands but does not provide for prohibiting conversion of khazan lands to other purposes even agro related industries like pisci-ulture or horticulture.
And though it states that local fishermen’s houses will be protected, it ignores other traditional communities living on the coastline like the toddy tappers and also fails to specify how the houses will be protected.
The most obnoxious aspect of the pre-draft notification is the attempt to re-introduce clauses from the Coastal Management Zone that were so vehemently opposed that the government had to allow that notification to lapse.
The most obvious example of this is the introduction of ‘hazard line’ which, a fine reading of the pre-draft notification indicates, is aimed at diluting the ‘no development zone’ demarcated under the Coastal Regulation Zone notification.
In Goa the hazard line assumes great significance given the fact that large tracts of land on cliffs and highlands abutting the sea have been purchased by vested interests with an eye on developing them for commercial purposes. The hazard line would be giving them the opportunity to reap large profits on these investments.
Given the tenor of the pre-draft notification, the classification of CRZ-IV relating to the waters within the territorial jurisdiction is also suspect, as there is no mention absolutely of what activities are permitted in the territorial waters and what is not. As it is fishermen all over the country are being harassed under the garb of security of oil installations whenever they fish in the Indian territorial waters. Whether this new classification will be used to justify the harassment is a question that worries fishermen.
Besides, given the fact that the pre-draft notification has amply provided for opening of the coastal areas for investment and development, whether the ministry really wants to protect the territorial waters or throw them open for investments is another worry specially as currently the territorial waters is a State subject and through this notification, the Centre wants to usurp the State powers to carry out its own agenda..
It is because of these various aspects that the pre-draft notification of Coastal Regulation Zone 2010 has to be rejected in its present avatar and the Draft Notification that is to follow, should incorporate all the suggestions made by the stakeholders while also seriously considering their objections and based on that the Ministry would do well to come up with new legislation to protect the country’s coastline rather than relying only on notifications.

Matanhy Saldanha
GRE, General Secretary
Former Minister for Tourism