Centre issues new regulations to protect coastline

The Centre on Monday notified regulations imposing fresh restrictions on development activity within 500 meters of the 7,500-km long Indian coastline divided into four zones depending on ecological sensitivity.

Updated on: Sep 14, 2010, 01:59:40 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Centre on Monday notified regulations imposing fresh restrictions on development activity within 500 meters of the 7,500-km long Indian coastline divided into four zones depending on ecological sensitivity.

A special relaxation has been given to Greater Mumbai, which includes old and new Mumbai. The new regulations have been enforced after deliberations for over five years.

Even the proposed airport at Navi Mumbai comes under the ambit of the relaxed rules but it will have to pass the test of a expert appraisal committee.

In Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) one, which includes mangrove belts and coral reefs, construction of new approach roads has been allowed if they don’t disturb free flow of tidal water.

In the CRZ-II areas developed close to shoreline in Mumbai, the ministry has allowed existing development activity and has provided special exemption for slum rehabilitation schemes undertaken by the government.

However, the ministry has decided to declare all open areas including parks and playgrounds in Greater Mumbai as “no development zone”, which is CRZ-III area.

The ministry has brought all backwaters of Kerala under the CRZ regulation, 2010 but has allowed fishing activity and construction dwelling unit for local communities in these areas.

In case of Goa, the ministry has decided that the state government will survey all fishing villages. However, popular beaches such as Mandrem, Morjim, Galgiba and Agonda have been designated as turtle nesting site, where no development activity will be allowed.

Sunderbans in West Bengal, Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, Achra-Ratnagiri in Maharashtra and Bhaitarkanika in Orissa have been described as critically vulnerable coastal areas.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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