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THE Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has issued a circular on the Guidelines for updation of Coastal Zone Management Plan(CZMP) opening up private inter-tidal areas and buffer zones around the mangroves to real estate development.
The circular mandates all coastal states to prepare a CZMP within six months by aligning the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2011 with CRZ Notification, 2019, which reduces the CRZ from 500 to 50 metres from the high tide line.
"The reduction of CRZ area to 50 meters means more development closer to the coast and while this may be good news for the real estate industry, it spells bad news for the environment. Rising sea levels on account of climate change will mean more natural calamities along the coast and we are not ready to tackle such devastation," Shrianka Karile, a consultant to the real estate industry on environmental norms, told the media.
The MoEFCC in its circular asked the coastal states and Union Territories to prepare their CZMP as per the revised and updated provisions contained in the CRZ 2019, which is as follows:
| No Development Zone (NDZ)/Buffers of tidally influenced waterbodies (water bodies influenced by tidal effects from sea in the bays, estuaries, rivers, creeks, backwaters, lagoons, ponds that are connected to the sea) | 50 meters or width of the creek, whichever is less. |
| NDZ for CRZ-IIIA areas (seafront) | 50 m |
| NDZ for CRZ-IIIB areas (seafront) | 200 m |
| NDZ for inland islands in the coastal backwaters and islands along the mainland coast |
The total coastline of India measures about 7, 517 kms which is distributed among nine coastal states and four Union Territories. With the present changes in the CRZ, interests of powerful economic actors have been favoured over the need to protect the coastal ecosystem and secure the livelihoods of poor coastal communities that depend on the natural resources for their livelihoods.
