The Hindu : `Give more powers to coastal management authority'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 23, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

`Give more powers to coastal management authority'

By Feroze Ahmed

CHENNAI JUNE 22. A group of environmentalists and fishermen have called for reconstitution and reclassification of the Coastal Zone Management Authority to give it teeth to monitor and protect the eco-system.

A resolution, forwarded this week to the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, the State Environment Secretary and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Coastal Watch Forum — a group formed recently to safeguard coastal rights — states that the CZMA at both the Centre and the States became "non-functional because of their narrow, bureaucratic composition".

The authority should be given greater responsibility to implement coastal regulation zone rules and be made broadbased and vibrant, it says, suggesting that a separate law on coastal area be enacted.

The resolution was framed after a recent meeting, in which participants charged that the CZMA was proving ineffective in the face of political and industrial compulsions. This led to exploitation and pollution of the fragile marine eco-system, which, they said, would have disastrous consequences for urban habitation in coastal cities.

The group has urged the Government to conduct a study on the adverse effects of shoreline high-rise buildings on public health, due to a rise in temperature, depletion of water table and pollution caused by such constructions. "Public health concern should be given top priority in urban coastal management," it says.

On differences between the Centre and State over coastal regulations, the forum says that coastal management should be concerned primarily with the eco-system and not be State-centred.

"The coast has a dimension of its own that does not respect artificially demarcated State boundaries," it says, and urges for a comprehensive public-centred development plan for ecological, environmental and economic management of urban coasts.

`Protect fishermen interests'

As for fishermen rights, the statement says development should factor in the community's right to livelihood and urges authorities to protect their ownership of marine resources. It notes that fishermen considered the CRZ specification disallowing development within 500 m of the high tide line as a norm aimed at protecting their livelihood, and any new legislation on coastal management should account for the sentiment.

The forum also argues for conversion of the Marina ecosystem — comprising the Bay of Bengal, the Cooum, the Buckingham Canal and the Adyar River — from CRZ II into the more stringent CRZ I, which protects coastal areas from further urbanisation.

But such reclassification should not be used to evict fisherfolk, it says.

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