The Coastal Zone Management Plan reduces the distance from high tide line and the river banks to 50 metres from the existing 100 metres
Environmental groups have slammed the dilution of the CRZ norms under the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) for Maharashtra coast approved by the Centre.
The reduction of the distance from high tide line and the river banks to 50 metres from the existing 100 metres is nothing but a straight forward invitation for environmental disaster, NatConnect Foundation said in its missive to the Union Environment, Forest And Climate Change Ministry.
As it the 100-metre limit is being grossly violated with no check whatsoever and further reduction to 50 metres from the high tide line does not make any sense, said NatConnect director B N Kumar.
The Centre and State governments appear to be oblivious to the global concerns over the rising sea levels and the warning that major parts of most of the coastal areas will be in deep water by the year 2050, Kumar regretted.
The rise in sea level is not going to happen on the New Year Day of 2050, but it is going to be gradual. “We ought to be getting prepared with our disaster management plans and leaving elbow room for the water to spread, instead we are constructing increasingly into the sea,” NatConnect said questioning the governments’ wisdom.
Nandakumar Pawar, head of Sagarshakti, questioned the governments’ love for the fishing community for whose benefit the CRZ norms are being ostensibly diluted. All along, hardly anything has been done either to compensate or resettle the traditional fishing community which has been unsettled with the urbanisation in Mumbai and metropolitan region, he pointed out.
The CRZ dilution for facilitating the coastal communities to redevelop their houses is a mere eyewash, Pawar apprehended and said under the pretext of tourism development the beaches in the State will be ruined. Unchecked tourist flow is playing havoc with the hill stations such as Matheran, Panchgani and Lonavala and now the sea coasts will come under attack, he said.
This is going to be the end of the CRZ rules which will mean a recipe for disaster the impact of which cannot be fathomed by the thoughtlessness of the government, Pawar said.
Kumar pointed out that these developments prove that all the talk of pro-environment and mangrove protection policies is a mere lip-service as the diluted CRZ norms will lead to further worsening of the ecological imbalance.
Source : Hindustan Times
