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Indian govt coastal management plan may alter coastline, says conservation group
A new draft notification by the Indian government on coastal management allows development of greenfield airports in ecologically sensitive areas like mangroves, coral reefs and turtle nesting grounds, subject to environmental clearance. (14 May 2008) Hindustan Times
14 May 2008
By Chetan Chauhan
A new
draft notification by the Indian government on coastal management allows
development of greenfield airports in ecologically sensitive areas like
mangroves, coral reefs and turtle nesting grounds, subject to environmental
clearance.
The environment ministry draft notification on Coastal Zone
Management (CZM) to be finalised in the next six months has environmentalists up
in arms. "This notification makes construction of a new greenfield airports like
the one proposed at Navi Mumbai possible," said Debi Goenka of the Conservation
Action Trust, a Mumbai-based NGO.
What has surprised environmentalists is
the way the environment ministry inserted allowing greenfield airports in the
draft notification. In the notification issued on May 1, there was no mention of
allowing greenfield airports. But, an amendment notification was issued on May 9
to include them in the development activities to be allowed on India's
coastline. "The government wants to help private developers at the cost of
environment," Goenka alleged.
In the much-diluted version of existing CMZ
notification of 1991, the new draft notification intends to open India's entire
coastline to economic activity. With this, the environment ministry seems to
have accepted recommendations of a Planning Commission report on service sector
that wanted relaxation in the environment norms to protect falling earnings of
the Indian shipping industry.
The draft CMZ guidelines are constituted to
strengthen India's 7,600-km coastline after the 2004 Tsunami and check CMZ
violations.
Environmentalists say the draft notification, if implemented,
would regularise all violations of the 1991 notification. It can happen with the
draft guidelines recommending status quo for existing structures close to the
coast. Moreover, the draft suggests having separate setback lines for different
coastal regions depending on geomorphology, horizontal shoreline shift and
elevation level of the sea. Till now, India has had a uniform setback line,
where limited commercial activity is allowed, of 500 metres for ecologically
sensitive areas and 200 metres for other coastal areas.
The ministry has
termed the uniform vulnerability line outdated. Ministry officials, however,
admitted such a line could be a major headache. Environmentalists say monitoring
differential setbacks would be a tough task for the environment
ministry.
Source: Hindustan Times
Via ICSF
