CRZ 2011 - THE BETRAYAL OF FISHERS?

This piece was first published in the TRINet blog, part of the TRINet newsletter for February 2011.

NFF rally at Azad maidan 

The long awaited, much discussed and fought over CRZ 2011 notification was finally issued on 07 January 2011. For the very first time, an Island Protection Zone Notification 2011, that covers all island territories, was also issued. 

The notification has special provisions for Greater Mumbai, Goa and Kerala, and has identified Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas (CVCAs) like the mangroves of Sunderban; Chilka and Bhitarkanika in Orissa; Gulf of Khambat and Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat; Malwan in Maharashtra; Karwar and Kundapur in Karnataka; Vembanad in Kerala; Coringa, East Godavari and Krishna Delta in Andhra Pradesh and the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu.

Other new features of this notification include the inclusion of 12 nautical miles of coastal waters and all coastal water bodies affected by tides such as creeks, rivers, estuaries etc without any restrictions on fishing within this zone; coastal zone management plans to be made after consultations with traditional coastal communities; a hazard line will be demarcated in the next five years; and a proposed mapping of the shoreline through time-series satellite images with no development in high erosion foreshore areas.

The reduction of the ‘no development’ zone from 200 m to 100 m to meet increasing demands of housing for fishing and other traditional coastal communities; clear, time bound procedures for obtaining CRZ clearances were stipulated along with post-clearance monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, and measures to combat pollution in coastal areas. All violators of the CRZ 1991, barring fishermen families, will be identified and brought to the book in four months, under the new notification, says Jairam Ramesh, in a press release issued with this notification.

The Convenor of the National Coastal Protection Campaign (NCPC) and a member of the negotiation team that held discussions with the ministry, V Vivekanandan, told media persons that despite all public hearings and assurances from the minister, concerns of fisher communities were not reflected in this notification. There were no clear-cut procedures, timeline and format for obtaining clearances; no post-clearance monitoring mechanism or an enforcement mechanism to check future violations, he added.

The allocation of FSI (Floor Space Index), concessions for slum rehabilitation and renovation of old buildings in Mumbai is another area of contention. The FSI has been increased from 1.33 times to 2.5 times - the extra FSI in CRZ area will help the construction lobby to grab more area, build extra flats and rake in huge profits, says Vivekanandan

There are about 3.52 million fishers occupying the 3,202 fishing villages spread across the Indian coastline. They are not so visible and often poorly represented in public debates. The minister had promised, during discussions, to have at least three representatives from fishing community organizations in the state and national coastal management authorities none of which have been incorporated in the notification.

The reduction of the ‘no development’ zone from 200 m to 100 m to meet increasing demands of housing for fishing and other traditional coastal communities comes with a catch. The notification says traditional communities including fishing communities but fails to mention who these traditional communities are. This might open up sensitive areas of the coast to non-fishing communities and their proxies, it is feared.

Then comes the issue of permitting roads on stilts or elevated roads over sensitive coastal ecosystems like mangroves etc. Environmentalists feel these roads will destroy green areas along the coast.

Certain exemptions built into this notification have also come under flak. Coastal areas are to be segregated by levels of erosion – high, medium and low level erosion areas. This might provide exemptions for projects like ports, service industries etc to worm their way into the low erosion areas because they are deemed ‘stable’.

On 25^th January, the MoEF issued a directive to all states to identify violators of the CRZ 1991 notification within four months, and to take action against them under the Environment Protection Act (1984) within the next four months of identifying the violators. The ministry has also asked the states to publish details of violations and the action taken against violators, online. This fixed timeline for identifying and acting against CRZ violations has been welcomed as a move in the right direction.

The delineation of the hazard line has also been welcomed by members of the NCPC. The new CRZ – 1 ‘no development’ zone is now 500 meters and if the hazard line mapping shows a larger area, then the CRZ would expand and more area of the coast will be regulated and hence protected. The rules also say fishing communities already occupying such zones will not be evicted. 

The NCPC is now stepping up the pressure on Jairam Ramesh. The National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) has written to the minister pointing out how the ministry has ignored pleas by fishing communities and brought out this draft notification as per the ministry’s wishes. The letter requests the ministry to make necessary changes and not to force fishermen to hit the roads yet again on CRZ issues. They have offered to cooperate with the ministry in implementing progressive provisions in CRZ 2011 and to identify violations of the CRZ 1991 notification. The NFF is launching a national level agitation on February 25^th to protest against provisions that are unfavourable to fisher communities.

With the NFF now seriously considering reviving the four year old agitation against CRZ notifications, the fate of our coastline remains unclear. The ministry has been paying only lip service to the demands of fishing community organizations and environmentalists. Chinks are now appearing in the hype generated around Jairam Ramesh and his environmental crusades. He has stated that our coasts have an economic significance besides the ecological one and that an approach that takes both into consideration is the way ahead. From the recent CRZ notification, it seems the scales are tilted away from fishing communities and favour other interests of the ministry.  This leaves fishers with no recourse but to agitate, and the campaign for the rights of traditional fisher communities, the original inhabitants of our coasts, continues.