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‘Strict law needed to ensure the right of fishermen to coastal habitat’

E.A.S.Sarma, former Secretary to the Government of India and convener, Forum for Better Visakha, Visakhapatnam, writes:

We refer to Dr. M.S. Swaminathan’s interesting article, “The tsunami and a new chapter” (The Hindu, Edit page, December 26). The article rightly highlights the need to strengthen the ecological security of the coastal communities, so as to ensure sustainable livelihoods for the fishermen.

In Andhra Pradesh, we have come across several instances of vandalisation of coastal resources, wanton destruction of mangrove forests and incursion of salinity into local ground water aquifers, all perpetuated in the name of “development.” The disconcerting aspect of this is the uninhibited complicity in this of the very same official agencies that are supposed to enforce the provisions of the Environment Protection Act and the Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ) Notification. The MSSRF deserves commendation for its multifarious efforts to conserve the coastal ecology.

However, we wish to express serious reservations on the Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) Notification that the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MOEF) propose to bring into effect, on the basis of the findings of Swaminathan Committee. As admitted in the article, the fishing community is apprehensive about replacing the existing CRZ by the proposed CZM. On the basis of our interaction with the local fishermen, we get the feeling that the committee had not fully taken their concerns into account, while arriving at their recommendations. As already stated, over the last several years, there have been numerous instances of violation of CRZ all along the coast, often by the State itself, in nexus with unethical developers. From the point of view of the fishermen, CZM is merely a ploy to open the floodgates to similar violations taking place on a much larger scale.

In our view, any statutory notification on coastal zone management should revolve around the basic concept that the fishing community has the inherent primary right to access to the sea and its resources. CZM fails to state this in a forthright manner.

Dr. Swaminathan has rightly suggested in his article that a legislation similar to the one enacted by the government in 2006 on forest rights for the Scheduled Tribes should be introduced for the fishing community. Going one step further, what is perhaps required is to enact a more stringent legislation (similar to the Land Transfer Regulation for the Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh and some other States) to declare the inherent right of the fishermen to their coastal habitat and access to the sea and its resources.

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