Meenakshi Kapoor of the CPR Namati Environmental Justice Program interview Dr K V Thomas to understand the two review processes of coastal regulation undertaken by two governments before and after the promulgation of the CRZ Notification 2011. Dr K V Thomas has been a member of the Lakshadweep Coastal Zone Management Authority (LCZMA) since 2008. He retired as scientist, National Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram and is presently with the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies. He coordinated the preparation of Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMP) for Kerala, Lakshadweep and Maharashtra and also the Integrated Island Management Plan (IIMP) for Lakshadweep. He participated in the meetings held on CRZ in Kerala in 2010. You have been involved in coastal issues for 40 years. As a scientist and someone who has been closely involved in coastal planning, what have been the main challenges of coastal planning and management? Challenges now are varied from the ones in older days. Currently, the biggest challenge is that the coastal communities are still marginalised. Even after all these years and amendments to laws, their living conditions have not improved to the level we claim. Fishing as a profession is not respected socially. This has not changed over time. This will happen only when the standard of living of the fisher people and the working environment improves along with financial return. Fisher people do not get benefits due to them as an extremely marginalised community. Coastal communities don’t have a say in coastal governance. Elected people’s representatives most often do not represent the fisher community and proper participation of the community does not happen in coastal and ocean policy formulation and economic development. Development remains sectoral and not integrated. Another challenge is that we do not have environmentally acceptable and financially viable coastal protection measures. For instance, hard structures like sea walls cause loss of beach. Even scientists and technologists are not able to give appropriate solutions, therefore coastal vulnerability remains. Though the concept of integrated management plan was introduced in CRZ 1991, this is yet to happen. Even the management plan under the CRZ, 2011 is pending, though it was due in 2013. Planning means proactive measures and requires reference maps before any activities are permitted on the coast but there are no baseline maps and no integrated plan. National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) is involved in plan preparation but it is very secretive. Transparency and involvement of stakeholders have to be there. Also, canals and small water bodies are being ignored in the CZMP now under preparation. These are blood vessels of the coastal zone. In your view, what is the need to have a regulation like CRZ? Does it really obstruct development as has been stated by the state governments who the Shailesh Nayak Committee spoke to? It doesn’t affect development. It only restricts activities in the coastal zone for which shoreline is essential. It tries to decongest the coastal zone. Most pollutants generated in the hinterland land up on the coasts and near shore waters. Coastal regulation zone acts as a buffer zone for the sensitive coastal systems. Sandy beaches and mudflats are themselves morphologically sensitive. CRZ is the only legislation that says that the primary stakeholders of the coast are fisher and coastal communities. You have followed the CRZ discussions and developments since its first version in 1991. According to you, how has the 2011 Notification been different from the 1991 Notification? Both the notifications made beach a common property and ensured public access to the beach. The 1991 and 2011 notifications acknowledged that fisher and other coastal people have the first right to use the coast. At the same time, both the notifications failed to acknowledge that fish workers are ecosystem people and the notification must allow them to have basic requirements like construction of dwelling units and associated community and livelihood requirements (subject to certain limits of course) as has been allowed for tribals in forests. The 2011 notification has included the water area within India’s territorial limits as part of CRZ which is the most positive modification brought in the notification. The 1991 Notification considered aesthetics of the coast and created a category called Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ (AONB) to protect the associated unique ecosystems. The 2011 notification did away with this category. 2011 Notification, in text says a lot on transparency but now the process has become secretive. Everything should have been up on the website. Even the process of preparation of CZMP 2011 is highly secretive. Secrecy leads to corruption. You were part of the discussions that went into the making of CRZ 2011. What did you feel about this process that resulted in the 2011 notification. Did the process matter at all and did it influence the final result? 2011 Notification came after a lot of discussion. The then Environment Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh took a lot of interest in it. After the draft notification was issued, different groups were consulted all along the coast. Three meetings were held in Kerala alone. It was a good exercise as there was transparency and we knew all along what was happening. But surprisingly, not much changed from the draft to final notification. Still the process was worth appreciating. Major modification that people like me suggested was that fishing communities should be considered ecosystem people. They should be able to live there with basic facilities. Facilities like small shops required for community life may be allowed. But this was not taken on board in its entirety. Media reports say that there is a new notification in the offing. What are your concerns if any regarding this and what would you like to see in this new notification for the coast? Changes based on the Shailesh Nayak Committee report may go against the basic concepts on which the CRZ notifications are built upon. Shailesh Nayak Committee consulted only state governments. It means essentially only the departments that look for development’ were consulted. If recommendations of the Shailesh Nayak committee come through as such, National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) and State Coastal Zone Management Authorities (SCZMAs) that are currently responsible for implementation of the CRZ Notification (read our report on performance of CZMAs) will be looking at only ESAs (Ecologically Sensitive Areas). Their ToR will be limited to protection, conservation and planning for ESAs as opposed to the entire area notified under CRZ. Government bureaucrats are mostly biased to development slogans. Their activities will always be sectoral, never integrated. Without working on the governance mechanism, limiting CZMAs’ role to ESAs and project clearance is not fair.