CHENNAI: Just a week back, the Environment Ministry told the Lok Sabha that sea levels across the Indian coast were likely to rise by 2.8 feet, putting millions of people at risk. On Friday, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2018, which, at the outset, does not seem to have factored in the problem of sea rise.
The emphasis of the new CRZ norms is on promotion of tourism facilities, quicker dispensation of defence and strategic projects and liberal licensing for the installation of treatment plants. Also, the Floor Space Index, which had been frozen as per the 1991 development control regulation (DCR) levels, has been relaxed.
Now, FSI permission will be granted for construction projects as prevailing on the date of the new notification. In Tamil Nadu, environmentalists fear this will open up a new gambit of real estate activities. “We will have to look at the full document for clear understanding, but going by cursory reading, the norms will concretise our beaches,” says Pooja Kumar of Coastal Resource Centre.
There are several mega projects proposed in Tamil Nadu that would use up large chunk of the State’s coast. For instance, the Union government is pushing hard to set up a Defence corridor and Adani Group is proposing to build a giant port in Ennore under the Sagarmala initiative, which is labelled ‘strategic’.
The real concern for Tamil Nadu is that the State’s coast is fast eroding. A report prepared by Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) predicts that 3209.33 sq. km of Tamil Nadu’s coast is likely to be submerged and millions rendered homeless if sea level rises by 1 m by 2100. Though hazard line mapping had been done, it has now been delinked from the CRZ regime.
Further, the No Development Zone (NDZ) has been reduced from 200 metres to 50 metres from High Tide Line in area with a population density of 2,161 per square kilometre as per 2011 census. "This is a concern as these decisions are taken without factoring in the issue of sea level rise," said an official from Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services.
Besides, the new notification allows temporary tourism facilities such as shacks, toilet blocks, changing rooms, drinking water facilities on beaches. The notification has also streamlined the process of CRZ clearances and only projects located in the CRZ-I (Ecologically Sensitive Areas) and CRZ IV (area covered between Low Tide Line and 12 nautical miles seaward) will now be dealt by the Union Environment Ministry. The power to clear projects in CRZ-II and III zones have been delegated to the state level with necessary guidance.
‘No dev zone’ reduced drastically
The No Development Zone (NDZ) has been reduced from 200 metres to 50 metres from High Tide Line in area with a population density of 2161 per square kilometre as per 2011 census