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| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: Jan 10, 2011, 10:50 PM IST
The redoubtable minister of environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, with a penchant for staying in the news, has come out with new coastal regulation zone (CRZ) norms. The latest proposals come two decades after the previous CRZ was notified with the aim of protecting both the coastline and the communities that dwell along the coast.
India has a long coastline of over 7,500km and many islands in the Indian Ocean, all of which need some regulation, if only to ensure that the coastline is not damaged and the livelihood of the communities along the coastline not threatened. The initial proposals seem quite promising: allowing new buildings with extra FSI near the coast without harming the coastline; protection to the traditional fishing communities, etc.
As can be expected, activists have jumped into the fray and opposed many of the proposals. Ramesh needs to hear out the criticisms carefully and not ignore suggestions when they make sense. But he must not either resist them doggedly or yield to every demand indiscriminately.
No one will deny that our coastline needs protection from predatory land developers. But one cannot, and should not, stop development of any kind. If fishing communities have lived for a long time along the coast, then it does not make sense to force them inland in the name of environmental protection. What needs to be done is development that helps the coastal community, which would factor in the environmental concerns as well.
Preserving the habitat is one of the ways of protecting livelihoods. The either/or choice of development versus environment is false.
Towards that end, Ramesh’s recent flip-flops go a bit against him. He starts out as a green warrior, hell bent on rolling back projects (as in the case of the Lavasa project), and then slowly agrees to them (as he did with the Mumbai airport). He needs to be clear on what is required, and be firm in taking a decision that benefits India as a whole. Let the CRZ be a beacon of his ministry’s clear-headed policy-making.
