CHENNAI: The National Green Tribunal, in an order dated February 22, directed the Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNCZMA) and the National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) to consider the 1996 approved coastal management plan with modifications instead of the 1997 plan in preparing the coastal zone management plan (CZMP).
The order also directed them to consider the objections raised by the public and take an appropriate decision ‘in tune with the provisions of the CRZ (Coastal Regulation Zone) Notification, 2019’. A release from the Save Ennore campaign following the order said that the order has confirmed allegations by activists and Ennore fisherfolk that TNCZMA had illegally used the 1997 map to enable industrial activities in the Ennore Creek.
“The order confirms long-standing allegations by activists and Ennore fishers that the former Director of Environment, Dr H Malleshappa, presented an illegal and unapproved CZMP that deleted entire sections of the river and backwaters to justify industrial take-over of ecosensitive wetlands within the Ennore Creek in Tiruvallur district,” the release said.
The applicants, in their petition, had stated that as responses to the applications under the RTI act, applicants received ‘’some other map’ said to be an approved map for Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone in respect of Thiruvallur area in 1997. This map had omitted a lot of water bodies and salt pans which were originally mentioned in the 1996 plan. On enquiry, it was revealed that the alleged 1997 Plan was not approved by the Central Government as required under the notification