The Coastal Regulation Zone notification of 2018 increases the vulnerability of coastal people to climate disasters

• The government has unleashed several extremely unimaginative developmental policies that target areas that have retained some degree of ecological value to turn them into sites for industrial production.
• The latest instance of this is the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification of 2018.

 Devalued fisheries economy

• Successive governments have created the impression that India’s coastline is a vast, empty space that economic actors can take over.
• Industrialists and real estate developers share this view because coastal lands are for the most part outside the regime of individual property rights.
• A government that has performed dismally on its promise of employment generation should avoid taking away the jobs of people engaged in fishing sector.
• The misfortune of the fisher communities is their lack of effective political representation.
• This may be why they are the targets of hostile government policies.
• With rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, coasts have become convenient dumping grounds.
• Since India’s systems to reduce waste generation and comply with pollution standards are so poor, the law now makes the coasts legitimate receptacles for all waste.
• India’s coasts are already facing climate change events such as intensive, frequent and unpredictable cyclones and erosion.
• The top-down policy of the Central government to encroach what’s left of the coasts and increase activities that involve dredging, sand removal, and large-scale constructions contradict grass-roots and scientific wisdom.

Risking lives

• The National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), for instance, has vociferously opposed these amendments since the review was announced in June 2014 by the Shailesh Nayak Committee.
• Instead of using the NFF’s knowledge to craft an effective policy, the government has peddled the same development model that has generated conflict and impoverishment.
• The notification now exposes more people to the unassessed impacts of climate change-related coastal damages.

The Hindu