Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa issued notice to the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging a part of the amendment notification on high tide line (HTL) and khazans in the State.
The PIL writ petition is filed for the rehabilitation of Goa’s ecological endowment – khazans. Petitioner NGO Goa Foundation has expressed reservation to a recent amendment dated May 1, 2020 to the CRZ Notification 2011, which was introduced in connection with the demarcation of the HTL in the CRZ areas in which khazan lands exist. The petition states that the amendment erroneously classifies mangroves found within the khazan areas as CRZ IA and hence, it has to be protected. “The impugned amendment ostensibly (and in good faith) seeks to provide the blanket protection offered to all mangroves in the CRZ notification to those mangroves which have grown within the khazan lands as well. However, in relation to the khazans, mangroves can only be encouraged and protected outside the khazan bunds, not within,” it said.
The PIL claims that mangroves within the khazans are a result of mismanagement of the embankments and sluice gates. They are therefore an undesirable development not intended. If they are protected, the khazan areas cannot be rehabilitated. The PIL however does not challenge the definition of the HTL in the State of Goa, introduced by the same amendment.
The petitioner is seeking deletion of only a part of the clause of the Amendment Notification 2020, on grounds that it is contrary to the objectives of the CRZ notification.
