The Hindu : Inability to demarcate HTL affects CRZ

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 05, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Inability to demarcate HTL affects CRZ

By M.Raghuram

MANGALORE JULY 4. The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) was never on top of the agenda of planners of Dakshina Kannada District, which has been targeted by industrialists from 1991.

The planners in Mangalore agree that the main difficulty in enforcing the CRZ strictures was the inability to demarcate the high-tide level (HTL). The local civic bodies are not in a position to maintain a local CRZ area map, which is causing a number of aberrations in determining CRZ violations. One of the recent studies by the State Government on CRZ violations has indicted many important industries and religious institutions for violating CRZ regulations.

The judiciary has pointed out such violations and passed orders to remove such structures. The Coastal Zone Management Plan, which is delegated to the State governments through an Ordinance, is also difficult to implement.

The Karnataka Coastal Zone Management Authority, which is charged with the duty of preventing and removing such violations, is also in a quandary as to what amounts to a violation.

In an observation, the working group set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 1982 to prepare environmental guidelines for the development of beaches and coastal areas states that the traditional use of the sea as a dumping site has increased the pollution loads of the sea and has reduced its development potential and the economic support it provides to people living nearby. These can be avoided through prudent coastal development and management based on assessment of ecological values.

Under the guidelines, even disposal of untreated sewage into the estuaries, within the 500 metres of the HTL, and into river mouths within the HTL, also constitutes a violation of the CRZ. In that case the MCC, which discharges the city's sewage into the river, is also violating the CRZ.

The Union Government issued the first notification on CRZ in 1991.

It appears that the State Government, which is the agency to carry out the directives of the notification, has not initiated any notable action.

It is only after the Supreme Court made serious observations about the lapses by the State governments that the Government submitted the CRZ plan and maps.

Not much of an effort appears to have been made by the State Government to find out the violations of the regulations or take corrective steps in that regard, the Karnataka High Court has observed.

The list of violations furnished by the Nagarika Seva Trust and other violations brought to the notice of the Karnataka Coastal Zone Regulation Authority showed that these violations had taken place in the areas coming under the village panchayats and municipalities. According to the municipal laws, the licensing authorities are either the municipality or the panchayat. These authorities are unaware of the CRZ regulations. Licences for construction of residential and industrial buildings have been issued without any regard to the CRZ regulations.

It is now evident that the failure to demarcate the HTL in many coastal areas by the local authorities defeats the purpose of enforcement of the regulations.

The local bodies have been endowed with enough powers by the judiciary and can use them without any reservations, the document says.

The trustee of Nagarika Seva Trust, Guruvainakere, Ranjan Rao Yerdoor, told The Hindu that the Taneer Bavi barge-mounted power project was a child of confusion over the HTL.

Mr. Yerdoor said the court had ordered the Karnataka Coastal Zone Management Authority to bring to its notice the action which the authority proposed to take in regard to the violations pointed out in the committee's report, and the time-frame within which the same could be accomplished.

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Inability to demarcate HTL affects CRZ