After the Maradu illegal apartments case, the case of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) violations by Kapico Kerala Resorts in Vembanad Lake would come up before the Supreme Court shortly.
The Bench comprising Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Surya Kant has listed the Special Leave Petition of the resort group for December 3.
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The Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) had turned down the application of the resort group as it was found that the resort was constructed in the No Development Zone in Nediyathuruthu island in Vembanad. It was by making use of a 2018 notification of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change that post-facto clearance could be obtained for projects in coastal areas that the group applied for permission.
In vulnerable area
However, the Authority rejected the application after it was found that the resort came up in the No Development Zone of the island. The authority applied the provisions of the CRZ Notification 1991 to evaluate the project as the construction of the resort began in 2007. The Vembanad backwater, a Ramsar wetland site of international significance, has also been categorised as a Critically Vulnerable Coastal Area in CRZ notifications, argued the authority.
The island was marked as a filtration pond in Map 32 A of the approved Coastal Zone Management Plan of the area and hence it fell under CRZ-I Category. The entire island is a No Development Zone, which could be equated to environmentally sensitive area, being a breeding ground for fish and marine life. As the island comes under Zone 1, the CRZ application of the group cannot be considered neither under the CRZ notification of 1991 nor under the 2011 notification, contended the authority.
Forwarded to MoEFs
Incidentally, the State Environment Department forwarded the recommendation of the authority rejecting permission to the resort to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFs) a few months ago. It was the fourth consecutive report of the authority rejecting permission for the resort that the Environment Department forwarded to the Ministry. The Hindu had earlier reported that the Department was holding back the recommendations of the authority.
The authority’s case was that the resort group illegally constructed 54 villas in the Island between 2006 and 2013 without obtaining the CRZ clearance. Besides the villas, they also put up a boiler room, a central power room, an electrical substation, a sewage treatment system and a water treatment plant. Restaurants, conference hall, gym, spa, water court and a rainwater collection pond of 72 million litre capacity and a water storage tank of 400 kilo litre were also constructed on the island. The authority had also produced the Time Series of the Google satellite images of the island featuring the year-wise images of reclamation of the lake and construction of the resort to prove its case.
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