The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Mapping of CRZ areas almost over

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Sunday, Aug 08, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Mapping of CRZ areas almost over

Ajai Sreevatsan

CHENNAI: Efforts to protect ecologically sensitive zones along the State's coast, estuaries, rivers and backwaters will soon have an unlikely ally. Using a combination of satellite imagery, GPS geo-referencing and village-level land survey details, the Department of Environment has almost completed mapping all the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notified areas in the State. The mapping of Chennai coastline has been completed till Kovalam and it is proceeding towards the Andhra Pradesh coast.

Of the 13 coastal districts in the State, the High Tide Line (HTL) in 11 districts has already been mapped and overlaid on top of a 1: 5,000 metre scale village level map that contain the land survey numbers. Once the exercise is complete, all the maps will be put up online to improve enforcement, said Environment and Forest Department Secretary Debendranath Sarangi.

Till now, authorisation for any construction that falls inside CRZ was just an estimate, said a senior official of the Department. “It was not based on any rigorous scientific study”. Based on several ecological parameters, the CRZ areas are classified into four categories namely CRZ I (sensitive and inter-tidal) CRZ II (urban or developed), CRZ III (Rural or Undeveloped) and CRZ IV (Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands). The entire coastline of nearly 1,000 km will be covered by 31 maps. It will serve as a “reference point” in any future coastal management plan, said Mr. Sarangi.

“We are also looking at setting up a committee purely for enforcement. Right now, while there is a set of requirements to get CRZ clearance, there is no mechanism to monitor if those conditions are being met,” he added.

Since the introduction of the CRZ notification, it has been amended 19 times permitting more activities within the CRZ area. Some of the amendments have been squashed by the Supreme Court.

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