The new coastal regulation (Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2011) reads as a compendium of the myriad exceptions to the few rules - of industries and projects that may in general or based on a case-by-case review, use the coast despite the environmental damage they will cause. It represents a further move away from managing the coastal natural resources based on principles to one based on discretion and exigency. For a critique, see this India Together piece.
Showing posts with label Coastal Regulation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coastal Regulation. Show all posts
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Coastal regulation zones
"The Government .... has allowed the 2008 draft Coastal Management Zone(CMZ) draft notification to lapse, as of July 2009. What happens to the Maharashtra government’s long-standing plan of relocating slum-dwellers to the saltpans so as to make available some of the world’s most expensive land in the heart of Mumbai for development? Has the Government taken back the CMZ draft merely because it was a shoddy job that did not please “even private developers”? Time will tell"
These are the concluding words of my historical review of coastal regulations carried in the April issue of Infochange Agenda ("On the waterfront"). The piece can be accessed here.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Coastal area regulation - the law and practice
Plans are on to develop low-cost housing on 2,167 hectares of saltpans in Mumbai that are presently under the control of the salt department, a wing of the central government.
At a recent meeting of a high-powered group of ministers, it was decided that “efforts of various central and state agencies be coordinated and urgent measures evolved for using these lands for rehabilitation of slumdwellers” (Financial Express, May 29, 2008). The land freed from the existing slums would be divided up for private real estate and public infrastructure projects.
One of the ‘urgent measures’ needed to make this possible is a change in the environment protection regulations governing coastal land use -- these regulations, as applied to Mumbai, prohibit development in all but 240 hectares of the saltpan lands in question.
The change is already underway. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) made public a draft Coastal Management Zone notification in May 2008 that will replace the current coastal regulations with a far more permissive regime allowing changes in coastal land use such as that planned for Mumbai’s saltpans.Read the complete article here
At a recent meeting of a high-powered group of ministers, it was decided that “efforts of various central and state agencies be coordinated and urgent measures evolved for using these lands for rehabilitation of slumdwellers” (Financial Express, May 29, 2008). The land freed from the existing slums would be divided up for private real estate and public infrastructure projects.
One of the ‘urgent measures’ needed to make this possible is a change in the environment protection regulations governing coastal land use -- these regulations, as applied to Mumbai, prohibit development in all but 240 hectares of the saltpan lands in question.
The change is already underway. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) made public a draft Coastal Management Zone notification in May 2008 that will replace the current coastal regulations with a far more permissive regime allowing changes in coastal land use such as that planned for Mumbai’s saltpans.Read the complete article here
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