The Hindu : Front Page : Coastal Management Zone draft will be allowed to lapse

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Coastal Management Zone draft will be allowed to lapse

Aarti Dhar

As recommended by Swaminathan panel; relief to fishermen

Existing CRZ Notification will be amended to address challenges from climate change
Consider a moratorium on new ports: panel

NEW DELHI: Bringing relief to the fishing community which feared displacement, the government on Friday announced that the draft Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) Notification, 2008 would be allowed to lapse on July 22.

Instead, the existing Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 1991, will be amended to take into account the challenges likely to arise from climate change-induced sea level rise, and the growing pressure of population on coastal resources and biodiversity.

This follows the Ministry of Environment and Forests accepting the recommendations of a four-member expert committee, chaired by agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, which reviewed the draft CMZ notification.

Prof. Swaminathan drafted the CMZ document in 2005 and now recommended that it be abandoned as it had failed to address the issues of fishermen.

“The lives and livelihood of nearly 25 per cent of our population living within 50 km of the shoreline, as well of the nearly 10 million fisher-folk, will depend upon the decisions we take now to develop enforceable regulations for integrated attention to both ecological and livelihood security,” Prof. Swaminathan told journalists here after handing over the recommendations to Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh.

Setting out an agenda for coastal areas, the committee, instituted last month, has also recommended that the government check violations of the CRZ through improved space technology-enabled enforcement, strengthened institutions, and regulatory and legal reforms. It has suggested introduction of regulations to manage the proliferation of ports along the coasts with possible impacts on the coastline by considering the cumulative impact of these developments and a moratorium on new ports.

Effluents disposal

Calling for tighter standards for disposal of effluents into coastal water so that these waters do not become cheaper alternatives to inland pollution management, the committee has suggested that issues of development and redevelopment of Mumbai be resolved.

“We have decided to accept the report of the expert committee and will introduce new management regimes on the Andaman and Nicobar as well as Lakshadweep Islands as recommended,” Mr. Ramesh said.

The committee wants the government to introduce any new protection regime — such as for critically vulnerable coastal areas — after understanding the impact of conservation policies on local communities, particularly fisher families. “We are contemplating a law to ensure livelihood security for the fishing community and are in the process of setting up a National Coastal Zone Management Board and a National Institute for Sustainable Coastal Zone Management based in Chennai,” the Minister said.

Strengthening protection of mangroves, inclusion of a seaward side to ensure protection from current and future threats and enhancing research and regulatory capacity at all levels are some other recommendations.

The committee includes Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment; Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences; and J.M.Mauskar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests.

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