The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and
Climate Change (MoEF), in a notification of January 6, 2011, stated that it
wanted to secure the livelihood of the fishing communities and other local
communities living in the coastal areas, conserve and protect coastal
stretches, their unique environment and marine area and promote development in
a sustainable manner.
The CRZ notification 2011 declared that the
coastal stretches of the country and India’s territorial waters, excluding
Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands, as Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)
and restricted the setting up and expansion of any industry, operations or
processes and manufacture or handling or storage or disposal of hazardous
substances there.
It then directed the respective state governments and Union Territories to
prepare Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMP) by identifying and classifying the
CRZ areas. The
Goa state department of environment handed over the responsibility of preparing
the CZMP to the NCSCM in 2014. The
NCSCM’s draft report made public earlier this year states that the primary
purpose of a CZMP is to describe proposed actions to be implemented by
administrative or other public authorities and potentially by the private
sector to address priority management issues in the coastal zone over a defined
implementation period.
Environmentalists,
local bodies and opposition parties have all voiced their opposition to the
draft CZMP report. According to environmentalist and Goa Foundation director Claude Alvares, they had informed the Goa
Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), that the
30-day limit for suggestions and objections to the draft was not legal, as it
was contrary to the 60-day limit provided by the Environment Protection Rules,
1986. Activists
also say that 254 maps that were to cover the state but certain villages and
municipal areas have been missing from the maps. Locals
and fishermen from South Goa villages have claimed that structures including
some homes and churches have been left out of the CZMP.
This is a serious concern because of the growing lack of democratic consultation in processes that involve changing the environment's classification, which can have adverse consequences. The
public hearing on the finalisation of the draft CZMP will be held on Sunday
from 10:30 am to 5 pm in Panaji for North Goa and in Margao for South Goa.
Let's hope that a consensus favourable to both the environment and the parties
involved is arrived at democratically.
