Kerala’s Updated Coastal Zone Plan

• The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has approved the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMPs) for 10 coastal districts in Kerala.
• The plan, in line with the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2019, allows coastal districts to take advantage of relaxed CRZ rules and initiate development activities.
• The Ministry has requested the State government to make signed copies of the approved CZMPs available to the public domain.
• The new regime will reduce the No Development Zone (NDZ) around tidal-influenced water bodies to 50 meters from the High Tide Line in at least 122 local bodies in the State.
• The new regime has also removed the mandatory buffer zone around mangrove vegetation located in private holdings.
• The approval of the CZMP is expected to directly benefit around 10 lakh people, as earlier restrictions for the construction of new houses and repair of existing homes will be relaxed.
• The new regime will see 37 village panchayats categorised as CRZ-III A, where the NDZ has been reduced to one-fourth of the earlier regime.
• The NDZ in the CRZ areas of Kerala will be reduced to half, 108.397 sq. km.
• The changes in rules will expose vast tracts of mangrove vegetation to exploitation, with the buffer zones of mangroves reduced to 2,500 hectres from the earlier 4,300 hectres in the State.
• The new regime has also taken away the mandatory buffer zone around mangrove vegetation located in private holdings, which could lead to the wiping out of large tracts of mangrove vegetation.