Why is fishing community wary of Modi's coastal regulation plan

The fishing community across India has risen in unison to reject the draft Coastal Zone Regulation Notification 2018 (CRZ 18) that was released on 18 April by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC). This has been done on the grounds that the fishing community, which is the key stakeholder, was not taken into the loop on preparing the document. What has been published amounts to doing more damage, to the coastal environment, than protecting it.

The fishing community affiliated to the National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) observed 11 June as a protest day wherein they submitted memorandums to the administration in the coastal districts of the country while carrying the banner that read, 'restore our coastline, secure our livelihoods'.

The NFF has said this scales back the environmental safeguards for the coastlines. According to them, the draft stands in violation of Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which states that the central government shall "… take all such measures that it deems to be necessary or expedient for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing, controlling and abating environmental pollution."

The current CRZ (2011) notification mandates that setback zones be demarcated, livelihoods are protected and unchecked development curtailed. However, the draft CRZ 18 notification overturns these by removing safeguards, facilitating development and in turn paves the way for the Sagarmala programme.

The fishing community is also peeved over the MoEFCC publishing the draft CRZ 18 notification only in English which amounts to 'displaying its cynicism towards the fishing communities at large'.

According to the NFF secretary Usmangani Sherasiya: “We are the largest primary non-consumptive stakeholders and natural custodians of the coastal natural resources. The fish workers of India will not remain silent on a document that has been prepared without our consultation.”

The fishing community demands that government rescind the draft CRZ notification of 2018 and take immediate steps towards enactment of a comprehensive Coastal Regulation Zone Act as promised by former environment minister Jairam Ramesh in January 2011.

According to them the Act must be prepared through open and appropriate consultation with the coastal fishing communities and concerned citizens. It should be based on sound scientific, environmental and social principles with the aim to protect both coastal natural resources and sustainable livelihood practices dependent on those resources.

The NFF is additionally demanding that the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs) under the CRZ 2011 be completed. It includes the demarcation of lines, zones, plans and the long-term housing needs of coastal fishing communities in a transparent and accountable way with community participation and traditional wisdom being incorporated.

"Whenever there is World Bank grant coming there relaxations for industry and other so called developmental activities while there is no talk of the sea pollution. Between 1991 and 2011 there were no less than 25 amendments in the CRZ notification. In between was an attempt to set up a Coastal Management Zone, which basically spelt doing away with the very term Regulation. The attempt was shelved after a massive agitation that began from Jakhau on 1 May -- the International Labour Day -- and culminated in Kolkata," Usmangani said.

"The MS Swaminathan Committee that was formed to recommend future steps on the draft Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) Notification of 2008 was very clear on protecting the mangroves, coral reefs along with the livelihood of the fishing community. The committee had called for establishing buffer zones and no development zones. But till now there has been no implementation of what was recommended".

The Swaminathan Committee had recommended:

• Enhance protection to fishing communities and families for habitat and livelihood security through amendments in the CRZ Notification.
• Resolve issues regarding the development and redevelopment of Mumbai,based on locale-specific amendments.
• Introduce regulations to manage the proliferation of ports along the coasts with possible impacts on the coastline by considering cumulative impacts of these developments.
• Introduce tighter standards for disposal of effluents into coastal waters so that these waters do not become cheaper alternatives to inland pollution management.
• Introduce new management regimes in the Andaman and Nicobar as well as Lakshadweep Islands after deliberation and discussion.
• Introduce any new protection regime – such as critically vulnerable coastal areas – after the careful and deliberate understanding of the impact of conservation policies on local ommunities, particularly fisher families.
• Strengthen protection to mangroves based on clear definitions.
• Include the seaward side to ensure protection from current and future threats, but with safeguards to ensure there is no restriction to livelihoods of fishing communities.
• Introduce measures to greatly strengthen research and regulatory capacity at all levels.
• Introduce policies to cope with and adapt to the future dangers from sea level rise and increased vulnerability of the coast.
• Check violations to CRZ through improved space technology-enabled enforcement, strengthened institutions, and regulatory and legal reform.

Usmangani pointed out that in Gujarat, the state that he represents, the hazard line is yet to be marked and a report on the critical vulnerable area is yet to be presented. The high and low tide lines are also not defined.

The fishing community wants the buffer zone limit, around all mangroves. should be restored to 500 metres as per the CRZ Notification of 1991 to ensure their protection. “It is very essential to protect the mangroves, corals, sand dunes and the creeks without which the fish production is bound to come down drastically,” Usmangani pointed.

The fishing community at various places has been, raising the issue of untreated industrial and other waste, finding its way into the sea. It has been demanding an early solution to this problem.

The agitated community has particularly taken exception to the provision in the draft notification provision that has reduced the no development zone to just 50 metres from the high tide line in certain areas.

Usmangani said: “When we talk about the climate change we are told that the sea is moving landward but in our case it is us that are moving towards the sea by doing away with mangroves and bringing the so called development right to the tip. In the absence of the mangroves the sea too is fast consuming the land. For example in places like Bhadreshwar the sea is moving in around nine metres every year".