Areas Requiring Special Consideration

In one line

Three kinds of place get special treatment: the critically vulnerable stretches, the backwater islands, and Greater Mumbai.

In the wording a student can write in an examination: paragraph 3 of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2019 provides that certain coastal areas shall be accorded special consideration for the purpose of protecting the critical coastal environment and the difficulties faced by local communities, namely the Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas, the coastal regulation zone for inland backwater islands and islands along the mainland coast, and the zone falling within the municipal limits of Greater Mumbai; and paragraph 10 sets out the regime for each.

The Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas

Which they are. The Sundarban region of West Bengal, and other ecologically sensitive areas identified under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 such as the Gulf of Khambat and the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, Malvan and Achra-Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, Karwar and Coondapur in Karnataka, Vembanad in Kerala, the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu, Bhaitarkanika in Odisha, and Coringa, East Godavari and Krishna in Andhra Pradesh.

How they are to be managed. With the involvement of coastal communities including fisher folk who depend on coastal resources for their sustainable livelihood. That phrase is in the notification and it is the governing instruction for these areas.

What is required. Integrated Management Plans are to be prepared for all of them, keeping in view the conservation and management of mangroves and the needs of local communities such as dispensaries, schools, public rain shelters, community toilets, bridges, roads, jetties, water supply, drainage, sewerage, and the impact of sea level rise and other natural disasters. The plans are to be prepared in line with the guidelines for the preparation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan.

In the meantime. Until the Integrated Management Plans are approved and notified, the construction of dispensaries, schools, public rain or cyclone shelters, community toilets, bridges, roads, jetties, water supply, drainage and sewerage which are required for traditional inhabitants shall be permitted on a case to case basis by the Coastal Zone Management Authority, with due regard to the views of coastal communities including fisher folk.

Notice the structure. A special area is not simply a stricter area; it is an area for which a positive, community-involving plan must be made, and in the meantime the needs of the inhabitants are met case by case.

The backwater islands and the islands along the mainland coast

The problem. These are small islands in coastal backwaters and along the mainland coast, densely settled in Kerala and elsewhere, on which a five hundred metre zone measured from the high tide line would cover the entire island.

The rule. All inland islands in the coastal backwaters and islands along the mainland coast are covered by the notification. In view of the unique coastal systems of such islands and the space limitations in such coastal stretches, a coastal regulation zone of twenty metres from the High Tide Line on the landward side applies uniformly to such islands, and activities are regulated as follows.