Ecologically sensitive coastal land spread across 5,000 acres and worth Rs 75,000-1,00,000 crore in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is either under development or encroached upon, a survey has revealed. Of the 5,000 acres, environmentalists say, 3,000 acres of mangroves have been legally destroyed for development projects, while another 2,000 acres have been illegally cleared by builders and encroachers.
The range of Rs 75,000-1,00,000 crore has been reached by calculating the commercial value of the affected land at an average range of Rs 15-20 crore per acre, said sources. “The estimates from the study suggested… the authorities permitted the destruction of 3,000 acres of mangroves for ‘development’ projects,” said Debi Goenka, executive trustee of the NGO Conservation Action Trust (CAT), which conducted the study. Titled ‘Coastal Zone Management Plans: Tool for the Protection of Coastal Habitats’, it exposes critical flaws in the preparation and implementation of Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs).
The study was conducted using a combination of archival research, satellite mapping, ground surveys and focus group discussions to analyse the state of CZMPs. It highlights glaring inaccuracies and omissions in maps prepared over the last three decades.
The maps fail to demarcate critical ecological zones, including mangroves, coral reefs, mudflats, and fishing villages. “The CZMPs do not demarcate several stretches of corals, mangroves, mudflats, nestling sites of birds, salt pans, geomorphologically important areas, fishing villages, forests, and archaeologically important places,” states the study, which was sponsored by Azim Premji University.
Criticising the lack of consultation with fishing communities while drafting CZMPs in 2017 and 2020, it shows how municipalities, the bureaucracy, planning agencies, and statutory bodies continued to subvert the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notifications of 1991, 2011, and 2019, “often taking advantage of incorrect CZMPs, public ignorance, and a lethargic judiciary”.
The CRZ notification requires that coastal areas must be governed by accurate CZMPs to protect their ecological features, said Goenka: “CRZ notifications decree that construction and infrastructure projects proposed in coastal areas would be approved or rejected based on CZMPs, thus making the CZMPs a crucial tool for protecting the ecological and geomorphological features as well as the coastal commons for people who rely on them for sustenance. However, even though the CRZ notification came into force on Feb 19, 1991, we still do not have accurate CZMPs.”
