Mumbai: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to help all the coastal states as well as Union Territories (UT) with scientific drafting of their Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) to resolve the problem of submergence of islands, especially the low-lying ones. The principal bench of the tribunal has said this will further help address the issue of climate change.
Following a newspaper article about the dangers of rising sea levels and the submergence of low lying islands, the NGT had directed the coastal states/ Union territories to come up with a final plan to avoid further dangers. The final plan was to include three plans – the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), Island Coastal Regulation Zone Plan (ICRZP) and the Integrated Island Management Plan (IIMP), all in accordance with the Coastal Regulation Zone CRZ-Island Coastal Regulation Zone ICRZ Notification, 2019. Everyone, except Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, filed their replies.
After going through the matter, the NGT mentioned that the MoEF had approved the final plans for the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka but done little for other coasts facing the dangers of sinking. The NGT held, “It is observed that coastal states/ UTs are facing various problems, especially with regard to scale of mapping, incorporation of the comments received from the stakeholders in the final draft, issues with regard to the classification of CRZ areas, incorporation of the shoreline management plans and ecological sensitive areas in the final draft. Therefore, they were unable to complete the exercise and comply with the provisions.”
Notably, the MoEF has established the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management as an expert body to specifically assist the coastal states and UTs. However, the responses filed showed a lack of coordination between the state/ UTs with the expert body and the ministry.
