Coastal Regulation Zone...

On January 07, 2011 the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) released Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2011 to replace CRZ Notification of 1991. Also for the first time, an Island Protection Zone Notification (IPZ), 2011 was released to cover Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep.

The new notification has taken into account the fact that 250 million people live in the coastal areas (roughly 25% of the population).

The Ministry of Environment and Forests had issued the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification on 19.2.1991 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, with the aim to provide comprehensive measures for the protection and conservation of our coastal environment. However, over the last two decades the following issues emerged while implementing the 1991 Notification.The 1991 Notification stipulated uniform regulations for the entire Indian coastline which includes 5500 Km coastline of the mainland and 2000 Km of coastline of the islands of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep. It, therefore, failed to take into account that the Indian coastline is highly diverse in terms of biodiversity, hydrodynamic conditions, demographic patterns, natural resources, geomorphological and geological feature In the 1991 Notification, no clear procedure for obtaining CRZ clearance was laid down and no time lines stipulated. Furthermore, there was no format given for the submission of clearance applications It may be noted that the 1991 Notification, also did not provide a post clearance monitoring mechanism or a clear cut enforcement mechanism to check violations.The 1991 Notification sought to regulate all developmental activities in the inter-tidal area and within 500 metres on the landward side. No concrete steps were indicated in the 1991 Notification with regard to the pollution emanating from land based activities

.The restrictive nature of the 1991 Notification caused hardships to the persons/communities living in certain ecologically sensitive coastal stretches. These included slum dwellers and other persons living in dilapidated and unsafe buildings in Mumbai, communities living in islands in the backwaters of Kerala, local communities living along the coast of Goa and other traditional coastal inhabitants The 1991 Notification has been amended almost 25 times in consideration of requests made by various State Governments, Central Ministries, NGOs etc. In addition, there are also several office orders issued by Ministry of Environment and Forests clarifying certain provisions. The frequent changes to the 1991 Notification have been consolidated in the 2011 Notification.