Editor’s Note: On October 16, 2024, the NGT Western Bench in Pune constituted a larger bench to hear the challenge to the CRZ Notification 2019. On November 11, 2024, the larger bench expanded the scope to include the coastal zone management authorities of all coastal states and Union territories. The larger bench will now be hearing the challenge to the CRZ 2019 on December 10, 2025.
IF ANY INDIAN STATE would stand to benefit from a strong coastal law, it is Goa. With its open seafront and numerous tidal rivers that criss-cross the land before draining into the Arabian Sea, Goa and its residents have lived in tune with this intricate and delicate ecology for centuries — proof of sustainable development, long before the term gained currency.
In 1972, the International Stockholm Conference took cognisance of the fact that urgent, immediate actions were required to protect the environment, if the planet were to survive with its biosphere. India played a lead role in the drafting of the 26 principles enshrined in the Stockholm Declaration. As a signatory to the Declaration, after 1972, the Parliament passed several laws to halt air and water pollution and protect its forests. These included the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
From Prohibition to Permits
In 1981, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi addressed the country’s beaches with a powerful gesture. She wrote a short 5-line letter to the Chief Ministers of the coastal states conveying her strong conviction that no development should be permitted within 500 metres of the High Tide Line in the interests of coastal protection.
Although the courts later held that her letter was merely an executive fiat and not backed by statute, it nevertheless marked a turning point in the coast’s environment conservation history – the beginning of serious coastal protection measures which would culminate a decade later in the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification of 1991, issued under the all-pervasive Environment Protection Act, 1986.
