MARGAO: The villagers of Benaulim, Varca and Colva-Sernabatim held meetings on Saturday to redraft Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) for their respective villages.
People gave inputs for preparing draft report of CZMP for Benaulim village. They were guided by a resource person appointed by the panchayat.
All stakeholders like fishermen, farmers, shack operators, water-sports operators, dairy farmers, salt pan farmers, etc, particularly those involved in activities around the beach area and alongside the river Sal were present and provided their valuable inputs. Environmentalists and members of Bio-Diversity Committee (Benaulim) were also present.
At a previous meeting held in July, Benaulim villagers carried out a thorough review of the proposed CZMP for the village prepared by NCSCM. It was found that NCSCM failed to demarcate important coastal features both natural and manmade in the draft plan.
The location of high tide line was also wrongly extended into aquaculture ponds and paddy fields. The fishing wards were shown outside the CRZ area. The fishermen’s houses/huts had not been shown. Also, the coconut trees dotting the coastline were missing.
However, in the new draft features like sluice gates (mush), fishermen’s hut and communities, community canoe/fishing boat ramps, location of traditional fishing activities, mudflat areas, aquaculture (manshios), bandhs, sand dunes, paddy fields and flood plains/reservoirs/catchment areas are proposed to be mapped in the CZMP.
Meanwhile, at the meeting held for Colva Sernabatim panchayat, it was observed that 70% of the existing structures have not been shown on Colva and Sernabatim Coast.
The various stakeholders like shack owners, hoteliers, fishermen, farmers, coconut grove owners along with Sarpanch Anthony Fernandes and panchas jointly decided that all the existing structures that are missing from the draft plan would be marked on the locally developed CZMP.
Citizens of Coastal Communities members Abhijeet Prabhudesai and Venzy Viegas assisted in marking the missing structures and redrafting the CZMP maps for Colva with the help of Chowgule College students.
Simultaneously, a team went on ground to plot sand dunes along Colva coast. On Sunday, two teams will be on ground to collect data in Colva .
A team of two students was also on the ground in Benaulim along with the local fishermen to collect ground data. Carmona will have its final review of the redrafted CZMP map on Sunday at the panchayat hall at 5 pm.
