CRZ guidelines to have wide ramifications

On the safe side:Vembanad Lake has been included in the new category of Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas as per the draft CRZ notification issued by the Centre.

KOCHI: The enforcement of the Coastal Regulation Zone guidelines, as envisaged by the Central government, is expected to have widespread ramifications in the State.

A large number of constructions, both commercial and residential, have come up on the banks of rivers and water bodies across the State in violation of the guidelines. According to the CRZ provisions, all water bodies which are influenced by tidal action and have five parts per thousand salinity in the summer months will come under the purview of the CRZ.

Vembanad Lake has been declared as one of the Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas of the country in the notification.

Almost all water bodies in the State are connected to the sea and influenced by tidal action. In these cases, the CRZ limit will be 100 metres or width of the water body towards the landward side, whichever will be less on either bank of the water body. No development activity, except the ones prescribed by the guideline, is permitted in the CRZ areas.

In the case of seafronts, the no-development zone will be 200 metres towards the landward side and in the remaining part up to 500 metres, regulated activities are permitted from the High Tide Line.

The High Tide Line is defined as the line on the land up to which the highest water line reaches during the spring tide. According to the CRZ notification, the distance up to which the tidal effects are experienced in water bodies shall be clearly identified and demarcated accordingly in the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs).

In Kerala, the CZMP, prepared by the Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, was approved by the Union Ministry for Environment and Forest in 1996.

The final draft stated that the State governments shall prepare the CZMP within six months and obtain approval from the Ministry.

On its part, the Ministry shall consider and approve the plans within three months from the date of receipt of the final plan.

The CZMP of the State will have to be revised in the light of the new notification, it is pointed out.

Coastal zone management experts pointed out that the draft notification explicitly spelt out the enforcement mechanism regarding the violations.

It will be the responsibility of all State Coastal Zone Management Authorities to “identify the violations of CRZ notification, 1991, within a period of three months from date of issue of this notification and take necessary action in accordance with the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, within a period of six months from the date of issue of this notification.”

The new notification has empowered the State authorities to issue directives to any person, authority or officer to comply with its directives regarding CRZ guidelines.

Source:The Hindu,20-9-2010

State coastal zone authority lacks teeth, says its chairman

KOCHI: The Kerala State Coastal Zone Management Authority (KSCMA) has been unsuccessful in curbing the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) violations as it lacks the implementation mechanism, said C.T.S. Nair, chairman of the Authority. Hence it could not adopt a pro-active stand towards CRZ issues in the State.

Talking to The Hindu, Dr. Nair, who is also executive vice-president of the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment, said the activities of the Kerala authority were mostly confined to “acting on requests for (CRZ) clearances” on applications that came before it.

Dr. Nair had recently submitted a report to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on Coastal Regulation Zone violations and destruction of mangrove at Mangrove Park,Pappinissery, Kannur, following instructions of the ministry.

“What has come out is just the tip of the iceberg. Many violations that are taking place in many other areas even go unreported,” Mr. Nair said.

The authority could not do follow-up in cases where permissions for constructions were issued.
The agency also lacked the mechanism to check the violations. Under the present system, it is through the District Collectors that the authority seeks the implementation of its orders. If they too fail, the authority is left with no option to implement its decisions, he said.Most often, the real culprits in instances of CRZ violation were government agencies, he said.

Mangroves were destroyed for the LNG terminal and the proposed oceanarium projects at Puthu Vypeen, Kochi.

The local bodies, which were bound to check the CRZ guidelines while issuing building permits, were ignoring the aspect, he said.

Meanwhile, some of the authority members pointed out that the construction of a luxury hotel was progressing at Maradu despite the stop memo issued by the authority.In another case, a huge apartment complex was being constructed on the banks of the Kochi backwaters and that too by reclaiming the water body.

This case did not even come up before the authority for the mandatory clearance, a member said.

Mr. Nair said that the Authority was looking into some instances of violations in the State. He hoped that the proposed CRZ legislation by the MoEF would give more teeth to the authority to act.

Source: The Hindu,16-8-2010