The National Coastal Protection Campaign (NCPC) — a collective comprising fishworkers' groups including the National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF) and environmental groups — jointly rejected the Ministry of Environment and Forests' (MoEF) ‘pre-draft' Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) 2010 notification for being anti-people, anti-environment and pro-industry.
In a statement, the NCPC said that most of the concerns and issues raised during the public consultation process, undertaken by Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh between August 2009 and March 2010, were ignored in the ‘pre-draft' despite assurances from Mr. Ramesh that these would be taken on board.
“The ‘pre-draft' is doubly disappointing as we had high hopes that Mr. Ramesh would ensure a much improved legal regime that would better regulate destructive development on the coast and protect the livelihoods of traditional fisherfolk,” said V. Vivekanandan, NCPC convenor.
“The contents of this ‘pre-draft' are grossly inadequate to control the rampant industrialisation on the Indian coastline. It also fails to address the dwelling and livelihood rights of the fishing community, providing only token concessions,” Mr. Vivekanandan added.
‘Final Frontier' report
In July 2008, the MOEF issued a draft Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) notification inviting suggestions and objections from the public. In response, the Ministry received a large number of suggestions and objections to the notification, which was examined by a committee chaired by Professor M.S. Swaminathan.
The committee submitted a report titled “Final Frontier,” which recommended that the draft CMZ notification be allowed to lapse and instead strengthen the CRZ notification 1991.
The MoEF accepted the recommendations and let the draft CMZ notification 2008 lapse. It undertook public consultations with fishermen, coastal communities and other civil society representatives across the eight coastal States between August 2009 and March 2010. These consultations were organised by Centre of Environmental Education, which submitted the report on the consultation process in March this year.
The NCPC statement said that in Maharashtra, continued mangrove destruction for construction and development projects, despite a Bombay High Court order ordering their protection, has alienated the fishing community. There are other tourism and port construction projects, all within the sensitive CRZ zone.
The ongoing destruction of mangroves in Mumbai, the controversy over Navi Mumbai's proposed new airport on mangrove land, and controversial port projects such as Dighi have made a mockery of the CRZ rules, the statement added.
Many of the recommendations contained in the “Final Frontier” report have been completely ignored, the statement said.
