The much-awaited verdict on regulation of construction along the seacoast is out: all existing construction will not be illegal under the new Coastal Management Plan (CMP) drafted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and announced early this month. In fact, the plan envisages making existing buildings as the boundary beyond which no new construction will be allowed — without due process — and calls for redefining the earlier 500-m cut-off limit as per local conditions.This comes three years after a panel headed by M S Swaminathan was set up to come up with new rules to replace the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) 1991 in the wake of the 2004 tsunami. Taking off from the panel’s call for effective “coastal management,” the rules aim at setting a management regime for the coast.As per the rules: “No constructions shall be permitted on the seaward side of any existing (as on 2008) approved building or tarred or surfaced road in the area”. This is a major concession when compared to the 1991 cut-off date given in the older CRZ regime. Revising the cut-off date to 2008 means regularisation of all these structures. This notification also introduces the concept of “setback line.” So far, the regulation was a blanket 500-m line measured from the High Tide Line. Now a “setback line” will be drawn taking into account four parameters — elevation, geo-morphology, sea level trends and erosion in the area. Another significant shift is that the Centre has given wide-ranging powers to states to enforce these rules. The state government’s permission will suffice to set up effluent treatment plants on the sea shore, to build hotels, resorts and tourism and sports facilities, says the draft.The coast has been categorized into four zones: CMZ I (Coastal Management Zone) will be “ecologically sensitive area” — beaches, mangroves, coral reefs, mudflats, marine wildlife habitats, horseshoe crab and turtle-nesting grounds, bird-nesting grounds and seaweed fields. An Integrated Coastal Zone Management plan will govern this. All construction will be prohibited in CMZ 1.CMZ II is “areas of particular concern” and will include ports and harbours, notified tourism areas, mining sites, notified industrial areas, foreshore facilities for SEZs, heritage areas, notified archaeological sites, defence installations and power plants. Here, the area sea-ward of the set back line drawn on the basis of scientific parameters will be a “no-development” zone with some exemption for “basic infrastructure.” CMZ IV covers offshore islands including Andamans and Lakshadweep which will be governed as per their own regulations.All other coastal areas will fall in CMZ III where activities like resorts, sports facilities and saltpans will be permitted on the seaward side of the setback line with local government and state permission.The Ministry has given time till the end of June for public comments to the draft. Objections have started coming in. “The setback line in the new CMZ is not the laxman rekha that we thought it would be. Allowing development beyond the line under certain conditions dilutes its concept and makes it only a ‘hazard’ or ‘vulnerability’ line,” said V. Vivekanandan, Advisor, South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies, which is sending a report to the Ministry.
