Mumbai: Environmentalists flay ‘dilution’ of CRZ norms under new plan

Mangroves at Devgad in Sindhudurg on April 11, 2022. File pic/Satej Shinde

Terming the alleged dilution of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms under the new Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) ridiculous, environmentalists have asked the government to scrap the rules altogether "instead of playing a farce with the environment".

Under the CZMP for the state, as approved by the Centre, construction will be allowed up to 50 metres away from the high tide line as well as river flows, as opposed to the existing 100 metres.

Stalin D of the NGO Vanashakti sarcastically asked why the government had even set the 50-metre limit. "Let them go build in the sea," he said.

"CRZ rules and various categories under it now do not make any sense as the construction will take place touching the sea and rivers. Nobody is bothered about rising sea levels and global warming. "What can we do if the governments are hell-bent on destroying nature," he said.

B N Kumar, director, NatConnect Foundation, termed the move disastrous, saying, "As it is, the authorities who are supposed to keep a watch on environmental violations are turning a blind eye to destruction in the name of development, and the new norms are going to make the laws meaningless."

The official explanation that the new norms will help the fishing community rebuild their homes is nothing but an eye wash, Kumar said and argued that it is the so-called tourism development that is going to ruin the coasts.

It is sad that ministers and officials are failing to notice the "writing on the crashing walls" in the hill states due to unchecked development under the guise of tourism development, he said.

Kumar also called for "throwing the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (M-CAP) into the Arabian Sea" since the government policies are conducive to environmental protection.

"The plan notes with concern the fact that temperatures are on the rise due to concretisation, but at the same time the government is going on the path to increasingly concrete whatever open places that the state and cities have," Kumar said.

"The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) has failed to check mangrove and wetland destruction and now that the CRZ norms are diluted, they too will have no use," he added.

Redevelopment activities along the coasts will lead to the powerful builder lobby grabbing properties and ruining the coasts, Nandakumar Pawar, head of
Sagarshakti, said.

Pawar said, "The experience of decades of urbanisation has only led to the displacement of the fishing community from their traditional places of work and we do not expect anything better now."

The environmentalists were of the opinion that neither politicians nor officials are taking genuine concerns seriously but are out for short-term gains.