By IANS
Chennai : As many as 37 groups, including fishermen's federations, Tuesday rejected a proposal to replace the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) policy, saying the new plan would be dangerous for India's coastal life and communities.
The proposed coastal management zone (CMZ) policy is to come in place of the CRZ, which has been in place since 1991 and amended 19 times in the last 15 years "under pressure from commercial interests", members of the fishing communities said here.
In a statement issued here Tuesday, the fishermen's unions demand that the government "implement the CRZ notification in its original 1991 form, until a new comprehensive legislation is enacted that satisfies the requirements of the fishing communities".
The CMZ notification being mulled by the ministry of environment and forests is based on a report by the M.S. Swaminathan Committee.
A draft of the CMZ notification was circulated in Chennai Monday to the federations and NGOs involved in environmental protection that are meeting for a two-day consultation on the government's new proposal.
South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies (SIFFS), the Matchyakar Unions from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, the National Fishworkers Forum, CEC, New Delhi, ATree from Bangalore, the Consumer Action Group, Coastal Action Network from Tamil Nadu, OTFWF from Orissa, Disha from West Bengal were among the participants.
"Only fish landing (harbours, mostly under private management) finds mention in the CMZ, there is no word on the activity of fishing which is the livelihood of millions along India's nearly 8,000-km coastline", SIFFS chief V. Vivekanandan pointed out.
"Inundation" is mentioned in the draft CMZ, "this is just a trick to move people and existing traditional habitations away from the sea", Aarthi Sridhar of ATree said.
The federations criticised the "inclusion of 12 nautical miles of sea from the shoreline" in the CMZ and said this "has major implications for the livelihoods of fishing communities, but the draft CMZ notification does not explicitly mention that this area should be managed with full participation of fishing communities".
They demanded that the "interests of other communities traditionally depending on coastal resources for their livelihood should also be considered when enacting the new legislation".
Civil society groups from the coasts urged the government to ensure "community-based and participatory coastal management".
They also demanded: "All violations committed under the CRZ Notification 1991 be penalised with utmost urgency" according to the Environment Protection Act.
They said the draft CMZ provided for a "setback line" which would "completely nullify the protection to the coast gained by the 500 m and 200 m restrictions of the CRZ" and would mean a "blatant commercialisation of the coast".
"It would help expand the CRZ II areas and bring CRZ III areas into CRZ II zone", pointed out Coastal Action Network's Ossie Fernandez.
"This would mean any building work could take place on the landward side of the setback line. In most cases, the sea walls would become the setback line, and more sea wall would be built," Vivekanadan said.
"Sea walls are bad as they prevent nutrient from rivers and the land from flowing into coastal waters and nutrients for coastal marine life is cut off," said V.N. Nayak, a reader in the ocean sciences department of Karnataka University.
With the new CMZ, India would also be violation the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar Resolution and the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, the federations said.