PANJIM: With a view to reduce the vulnerability of the coastal communities and ensuring sustainable livelihood, the Union Ministry for Environment and Forest (MoEF) has asked State governments to ensure that impacts of climate and shoreline changes are taken into account while making a land use plan for the area between the Hazard Line and High Tide Line (HTL).
MoEF, in a notification issued on July 2, further amended the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification 2011, following requests from various coastal States and stakeholders.
“Representations have been received from various coastal States and Union Territories, besides other stakeholders, regarding certain provisions in the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2011 related to management and conservation of marine and coastal ecosystems, development in coastal areas, eco-tourism, livelihood options and sustainable development of coastal communities, etc,” the notification issued by Joint Secretary Ritesh Kumar Singh states.
The Ministry has said that a ‘Hazard Line’ shall be demarcated by the Survey of India (SoI), taking into account the extent of the flooding on the land area due to water level fluctuations, sea level rise and shoreline changes (erosion/accretion) occurring over a period of time, and shared with coastal States and Union Territories through the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, Chennai.
“The Hazard Line shall be used as a tool for disaster management plan for the coastal environment, including planning of adaptive and mitigation measures,” the Ministry said.
“With a view to reduce the vulnerability of the coastal communities and ensuring sustainable livelihood, while drawing the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs), the land use planning for the area between the Hazard Line and HTL shall take into account such impacts of climate change and shoreline changes,” MoEF said.
The Ministry also received requests from defence organisations for providing an enabling provision under the CRZ Notification, 2011 for location of facilities in certain areas which are of strategic requirement and have national importance.
As such, under CRZ I the Ministry has allowed projects relating to defence organisations which are of strategic requirement and national importance and cannot be located elsewhere, subject to strict environmental safeguards.
