CRZ Story: Battle to save coast

CRZ is a much misunderstood law. Read this article to get an overview of the subject from Vizag's perspective. Just click this link.

CRZ story: Battle to save coast

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CRZ story: Battle to save coast

Sohan Hatangadi

Dated: 23 April 2015

To appreciate the philosophy of CRZ let’s go back a few decades. When we were kids most of us lived in Vizag’s “Old Town” near Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT), we lived within a few hundred yards of the beach, and played on the beach and swam in the sea whenever we could. Hundreds of catamarans, boats made with just two pieces of wood, would sail out every morning with their white sails dotting the clear blue sea and come back every afternoon laden with fish. Some fishermen would spread their nets from the beach and haul in a bounty of assorted crabs, prawns and fish that would leap in the nets as they came ashore, sparkling in the sun like stainless steel springs. Some of the catch would be sold on the beach itself but most went to the fish markets.

The seventies, time to move

In the late sixties the Japanese showed interest in buying our iron ore and were willing to fund the facilities to ship the stuff to them. VPT was lord of everything it surveyed and Iron ore export was big business. In the seventies the outer harbor was built; a 3 kilometer long wall came up along that beach to secure the facilities. Constantly rumbling conveyor belts passed over our homes carrying iron ore to feed the empty bellies of large ships in the outer harbor. The fishing community vanished, the sea got polluted, and the centuries old giant banyan trees under which we played every evening were felled to build the ugly slums for port employees. Neighbors, fed up with the polluted air moved north to new parts of town, the social fabric of the old town unraveled quickly. Eventually everything became brown with iron ore and coal dust and this once vibrant soul of Vizag decayed into oblivion.

An uncomfortable scenario

Fast forward again to a few years from now, the state government is strapped for cash; Vizag’s favorite recreational space RK beach is up for sale. A Singapore based conglomerate buys up the beach front along with the submarine museum, for a luxury resort. They reclaim 500 meters of sea with landfills, erect a 3 meter high wall from RK beach to Palm Beach and put up a couple of helipads, a dozen jetties for their private yachts and a casino. The rich and famous are welcome. The rest of us regular chilly bajji munching, egg noodle forking crowd are asked to get lost. Then a Shanghai based power giant buys up a stretch from Sagar Nagar Beach to Rushikonda Beach to set up a thermal power plant. It has to be near the port for getting the coal and they need the sea water as a coolant for their giant furnaces. They also need a big part of the beach for their “ash ponds” a charming name for large areas in which fly ash; the stuff left after coal is burnt in the furnace is dumped. The sea is polluted beyond repair, and it’s a little inconvenient for those who live in that area, but hey, we all need energy don’t we? Some folks protest asking why the industry can’t go somewhere “far away”. But then someone points out that our “far away” is next to someone else’s home and farm and their “far away” is our RK beach! OK, that was just making a point.

Protecting our coast

The Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) is a notification under the Environmental Protection Act of the Government of India meant to protect our coasts from harm. Considering that 14% of our population resides in the coastal districts of India and that our mainland has a huge 5,500 kilometer coastline plus the 2,000 km coastline of the Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands, the law is immensely important. It is especially important for us Vizagites because we love our beaches and want to keep them safe. However depending on who you ask, the notification is either downright stupid coming in the way of coastal development or a great piece of legislation that could save us all from mass environmental suicide.

Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2011

Very briefly the law regulates the types of development activity permissible on the landward side of the high tide line. First mooted by Indira Gandhi in 1981 this notification took nearly 30 years and some of the best brains in the world and plenty of civic debate to arrive at its present form in 2011.  It took a long time to prepare because of the diverse topography of the Indian coast. The main objectives of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2011 are to ensure livelihood security to the fishing communities and other local communities living in the coastal areas; to conserve and protect coastal stretches and to promote development in a sustainable manner based on scientific principles, taking into account the dangers of natural hazards in the coastal areas and sea level rise due to global warming.

For the regulation of development activities the coastal stretch within 500 meters of the High Tide Line (HTL) on the landward side has been divided into 4 zones. In some zones some activity is permitted between 200 meters and 500 meters of the HTL. This table gives us the picture in a nutshell.

Zone	Description of the area	Some permitted development and conditions
CRZ-I	Ecologically sensitive area such as mangroves, coral reefs, salt marshes, turtle nesting ground heritage sites and the area between low tide and high tide line	Desalination plants and in non-ecologically sensitive areas - dispensaries,  rain shelter, community toilets, water supply, drainage, sewerage for local inhabitants inside biosphere reserves after approval
CRZ-II	Areas which are developed up to or close to the shoreline and falling within municipal limits	Sanctioned buildings on the landward side of the existing road. Slum redevelopment and redevelopment of dilapidated structures
CRZ-III	Rural are. Coastal areas that are not substantially built up, including rural coastal areas.	Between 0-200 metres from HTL no construction is permitted. Between 200-500 metres of HTL, construction and repair of houses of local communities, tourism projects, desalination plants, non-conventional energy sources. Also permitted is agriculture, pastures, parks and forestry.
CRZ-IV	Territorial waters from LTL to the limit of territorial waters of India	Traditional fishing and allied activities undertaken by local communities. No untreated sewage, effluents or solid waste discharge in these areas is permitted.

LTL: Low Tide Line, HTL: High Tide Line

CRZ under attack

Now that we have got a basic understanding of CRZ let us decide where we stand. The most vociferous critics of CRZ are those who say “get rid of CRZ and xyz industry will flourish” The fact is that most advanced countries have already gone through this dark path and learnt from it. The best beaches anywhere belong to those that are sticklers for protecting their coasts. Throughout the world beach properties are governed by extremely tough environmental laws which are ruthlessly enforced by strong pollution control bodies and there is plenty of invisible engineering behind the scenes to keep their environment pristine. Our beaches and seas are already over polluted; let us not make it worse by undermining our CRZ laws. If we do so we will have to move our homes again, and this time there may be no better place to go to.