CHENNAI: The southern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNCZMA) to redo the ‘faulty and incomplete’ draft Ennore Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) map for omitting large tracts of salt pans and water bodies risking further degradation of critical coastal wetlands.
The green bench comprising judicial member Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member K Satyagopal said, “TNCZMA has not adverted to the direction issued by this tribunal on February 22, 2021, besides stating that preparation of the latest CZMPs based on 2011 and 2019 CRZ notifications would be more scientific and technical. TNCZMA should have followed the direction, rather than coming up with some excuses that too only after the applicant filed an application alleging non-compliance. We deplore the attitude of the authorities.”
In February 22, 2021, the NGT had specifically directed TNCZMA to consider the 1996 approved plan as far as Tiruvallur district is concerned, while preparing the plan under CRZ notification 2019. However, TNSCZMA has not complied with the order inviting the wrath of the tribunal.
“As it is only the draft CZMP prepared, it is not too late to undertake the exercise of ground truthing by using the baseline of 1996 CZMP. The exercise may be done in the third week of July,” the bench said, while permitting the petitioner also to be present during the ground truthing.
“In comparison with the approved 1996 map, around 2,000 acres of CRZ area was de-recognised in the latest mapping exercise. Whether it is deliberate or unintentional, it is something TNCZMA and National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, which prepared the maps, must clarify,” said K Saravanan of the Coastal Resource Centre. Saravanan has been assisting petitioner P Mahendran in the NGT case.
When contacted, environment secretary Supriya Sahu told TNIE any lapses will be corrected to ensure that wetlands are not excluded. “If there are any lapses in CZMP preparation, we will correct it. The ground truthing will be conducted as per the NGT directions and if any wetlands are omitted, they will be brought under the purview of the CRZ rules.”
In a written submission to NGT, Deepak S Bilgi, member secretary of TNSZMA, claimed that using a baseline of 1996 CZMP, especially the High Tide Line, would lead to non-accounting of the changes in coastal topography in the intervening period while drawing the latest CZMPs. “Going back to CZMP 1996 will make the entire exercise futile, as the preparation of the latest CZMPs based on the 2011 and 2019 CRZ notifications are based on more scientific/technical information,” he said.
But Mahendran argued that the issue was not about HTL. It is just limited to identifying the backwaters and water bodies in the Ennore region that were included in the 1996 Coastal Zone Management Plan, but illegally excluded in all the plans prepared thereafter.
“TNCZMA is reluctant to use the 1996 CZMP to avoid mapping violations and to ensure that further areas of tidally influenced backwaters are available for conversion,” Mahendran said.