VALIYAPARAMBA (Kasaragod): VP Vijayan, 60, a fisherman in Trikaripur Kadapuram, can be often seen idling on the foundation of a 1,000 sq ft house. Vijayan has lost all hopes of completing the construction of the house he was building for his son Vijesh K, 36. Officials have tripped him up with the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules.
The rear plinth of the house is 98m from the Kavvayi backwaters, and according to the 2011 CRZ rules, the area up to 100m from the river or backwaters (high tide line) is a 'no development zone'. A two-metre error.
The District Coastal Zone Management Authority (DCZMA), headed by the town planner, visited his site. "The town planner told me to take the foundation outside the 'no development zone'," Vijayan said.
Vijayan knew he did not have enough money to rework the plan. Vijesh's wife Shruthi and her sister had pledged their gold jewellery to raise money for the house. But while Vijayan was doing the mental calculation, a DCZMA official who accompanied the town planner saw a bottle near the structure and concluded that it was brought in by the tide and proceeded to make the spot the high tide line. "I told him that the bottles were thrown by residents. But he ruthlessly ignored my plea," Vijayan said.
The newly discovered high tide line puts almost the entire foundation of the house in the 'no development zone'," he said. It is to be noted that the high tide lines are demarcated by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) and made available to various coastal states. "It is not an arbitrary line or decided by bottles lying in the backyard," said C Narayanan, CPM local secretary and former president of Valiyaparamba grama panchayat.
Nearly 8km down south in Padna Kadapuram, P V Pavithran, 40, makes small fibre boats for a living. He wants to build a room so that he can buy raw materials in bulk and stock them. But the panchayat would not give permission for the room because his plot is less than 20m from Kavvayi backwaters. "If not on the riverfront, where else should we make boats?" asked a livid Pavithran.
His application for a house was also rejected for similar reasons. Pavithran, his wife Sulochana, and their three daughters -- a degree student, a class XI student, and a class I student -- live in a one-room shed.
2019 CRZ notification not yet in play in Kerala
Vijayan and Pavithran are residents of Valiyaparamba island panchayat -- a pristine sliver of land sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and Kavvayi Backwater but hammered by the CRZ rules.
The picturesque panchayat is unique in several ways -- but each uniqueness has become a bane for the residents struggling to eke out a living.
It could easily be the longest panchayat in the state, with a length of 24km. It shares borders with two municipalities (Nileshwar and Payyannur) and four grama panchayats (Cheruvathur, Trikaripur and Padna in Kasaragod district, and Ramanthali in Kannur district). But the average width of the island panchayat is only around 450m, said panchayat president V V Sajeevan.
The narrowest area is at Udinoor Kadapuram with 35m and the widest area is at Mavilakadappuram, at the north of the narrow stretch.
But the panchayat is classified under the CRZ-III B category.
According to the 2011 CRZ notification, an area up to 200 metres from the high tide line of the sea and 100m from the river is a 'no development zone' for houses. For commercial buildings, the 'no development zone' extends up to 500m.
According to the CRZ notification of 2019, 'no development zone' from the river has been reduced to 50m for places under CRZ-III B. For backwater islands and islands along the mainland coast, the 'no development zone' has been reduced to 20m now from 50m in 2011.
But people of Kerala can claim the benefits of the 2019 notification only after the state government frames the Coastal Zone Management Policy (CZMP) under the new notification and gets it approved by the Union government, said Dr K V Thomas, earth scientist and member of the Odisha Coastal Zone Management Authority.
A marooned panchayat but not an island
Valiyaparamba, though for all practical purposes is an island, is technically a spit or sandbar, because the southern tip of the 24km stretch is tied to Ezhimala, the home of the Indian Naval Academy, said Sajeevan.
The sandbar connecting Ezhimala and Valiyaparamba is 100m wide but there is no access to Ezhimala because a huge "China Wall" has been erected to protect the naval academy. "So we are an island but we are denied the benefits of an island where the 'no development zone' is only 50m," he said.
There is another uniqueness to Valiyaparamba panchayat. Apart from the long 24-km stretch, the panchayat has three proper islands surrounded by the Kavvayi backwaters: Vadakkekadu island (closer to Padna panchayat), Edayilekkadu island (closer to Trikaripur panchayat), and Madakkal island (closer Payyannur and Trikaripur). On these three islands, the 'no development zone' is only 50m from the coastline. It will be reduced further to 20m once the 2019 CRZ notification is adopted. "So these three islands are more populated with thriving businesses and tourism projects," said M T Abdul Jabbar, former panchayat president.
Govt working to change category
"Unlike several other coastal states, the Kerala government was not in a hurry to adopt the 2019 notification as it will bring little change on the ground," said Sajeevan. The state government is pushing for classifying 175 coastal panchayats, including Valiyaparamba, as urban areas so that they will be categorised under CRZ-II. CRZ-II constitutes already developed areas and there is no ban on construction activities.
Nileshwar being a municipality comes under CRZ-II. Only 150m wide backwater separates Nileshwar's Azhithala from Valiyaparamba. "We can see Azhithala from our breakwater at Mavilakadapuram. But the rules in Azhithala are different because it is in a municipality. If protection of the environment is the idea, Azhithala and Valiyaparamba should have the same rules. A tsunami will not discriminate between a municipality and a grama panchayat separated by a 100m waterbody," said A Abdul Salam, member of Oriyara ward of the panchayat.
Before the breakwater was built in 2013, the width of Mavilakadapuram was only 36m. "Since then, the soil has deposited along the breakwater and the width now is around 900m. But the online records of CRZ authority have not been updated yet. So residents are denied permission to build houses or commercial establishments despite Mavilakadapuram having enough width," he said.
'CRZ will displace us all'
Daily wage labourer Ratnavathi and her fisherman husband K P P Sreedharan live with their three daughters in a one-room house at Padna Kadappuram. "I want to build another room because our daughters are growing. But the panchayat will not give us permission," said Ratnavathi. Around 1,000 residents of the panchayat had applied for houses under the government's LIFE Mission. The government approved 328 applications. "Even in that, around 15% are in no development zone," said Madhu V, panchayat member of Pandrandil ward. "This CRZ will push us out of our village," said Ratnavathi.
It is already happening. Ashifa got married six months ago. Her father Shukoor K P, 62, who owns one acre by the riverside, gave her a plot to build a house. Her plans were undone by CRZ rules. Now she is staying at her husband's sister's house in Cheruvathur panchayat. Shukoor returned home after working as a librarian at King Saud University in Riyadh for 27 years. He wanted to start a coconut oil mill in his plot but was denied permission.
Similarly, Bhaskaran M, a BJP leader of the panchayat, proposed to start a coir factory last year at Padna Kadappuram. The proposal got a green signal from the industries department but was nixed when the Revenue Divisional Officer scrutinised it.
Kareem K P was working as a salesman in a supermarket in Abu Dhabi. He returned home to start a flour mill. His house is 350m from the sea and 250m from the backwaters. Yet, the proposal was not cleared. "There is no flour mill nearby and my enquiries found that people wanted one in their neighbourhood. But the rules are pushing us into the sea," he said.
Dr K V Thomas, who is also a CRZ policy expert, said municipality rules cannot be applied to Valiyaparamba panchayat, however close the two places may be. But the government should work on restoring the rights of residents to life and livelihood. "They should be allowed to build houses and start their businesses," he said. That is different from opening up the place to business houses from outside, he said.
He said the government should adopt a two-pronged approach. "On the one hand, it should initiate steps to frame policy as per the 2019 notification and get them approved so that people can get the benefit of the relaxed rules. Several coastal states have done it. Parallelly, the Kerala government can work on getting the coastal panchayats classified under CRZ-II," he said.
But residents said the least the government could do was to consider Valiyaparamba as an island. "The tail end of the panchayat which connects with Ezhimala is just 100m wide. It can be treated as a bridge. Why should the residents of the entire panchayat suffer because of a 100m wide sand deposit," asked Abdul Jabbar, former panchayat president.
Tomorrow (Part II): Valiyaparamba panchayat, a tourism haven but with annual income of only Rs 10 lakh