Goa has missed several deadlines to get its Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) ready. For instance, the October 2023 deadline set by the National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) was missed. An extension granted till May 2024 was missed too. Most recently, the National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), Thiruvananthapuram, which is preparing the CZMP for the state, said it would be ready by this month. We are almost halfway through January and there appears to be no sign of the CZMP 2019 being available for public scrutiny yet.
From the looks of it, the importance of a CZMP seems to be lost on the authorities concerned. Such a plan promotes sustainable development in coastal areas by dividing them into zones in which only certain development activities are permitted. A CZMP also takes into account the impact of natural hazards and sea level rise on the environment. Further, it caters to the needs of the local communities and works to protect their interests.
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Exasperated by Goa’s inordinate delay in completing the CZMP 2019, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) said the state is still using the provisions of the CRZ Notification of 2011, as it has failed to update its CZMP to reflect the enhanced provisions of the 2019 notification.
The ministry said the revised coastal plan would include stricter safeguards for ecologically sensitive areas. But until it is finalised, all development activities along the coast in Goa are assessed under the older framework.
Goa’s CZMP 2011 itself took an eternity to get finalised. It was notified only in September 2022. Soon enough, objections surfaced as the Chennai-based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), which had been tasked with preparing the coastal plan, had first drawn it on a 1:25,000 scale. This set off several complaints from citizens who said that structures and villages were not clearly visible on the map, prompting the state government to ask the NCSCM to prepare it on a 1:40,000 scale.
The plan in the revised scale was finally submitted to the NCZMA for approval only in September last year. Its approval is essential for the drafting of the CZMP 2019, which will be based on the CRZ Notification, 2019, and which the NCESS said would be ready this month. Interestingly, the CRZ Notification, 2019 has a slew of additional measures to regulate India’s coastline, such as prioritizing ESAs and mandating updated CZMPs for all states, which Goa, unfortunately, is yet to comply with.
As the Kerala-based agency and the Goa government drag their feet over completing and notifying CZMP 2019, the victim of the delay will continue to be the state’s fragile coastline, which is already reeling under the weight of unregulated development, particularly in areas where tourist footfall is high. In the absence of the latest coastal plan, the state has also continued to rely on the outdated regulations in the CRZ Notification, 2011, which has hindered stricter action as outlined under the CRZ Notification 2019. Many view this marked inefficiency on the part of the state government as an excuse to turn a blind eye to those fighting to protect the vulnerable coast and its once bountiful ecosystem.
Will the government only get its act together once it is dragged before the judiciary? If it does miss the January 2025 deadline to submit CZMP 2019 for the approval of the central government, it risks facing legal action. And at the rate at which work is progressing, legal recourse seems to be the only solution to ensure that a solid coastal plan is formulated for the state.
Climate change is at our doorsteps and we all know the destruction it can wreak. If anything, CZMP 2019 could help greatly in mitigating the effects of climate change by mandating strictly regulated development along the coast and giving due protection to the environment and ecosystems that play a vital role in keeping the vagaries of the weather at bay. It is time for the government and the agencies concerned to pull up their socks and get cracking before it is too late.
