Aquatic Pollution and Coastal Management

Unit 16 : Integrated Coastal Zone Management

16.1.Indian Initiatives
The then Prime Minister (PM) Smt. Indira Gandhi in 1981, after taking a note of unplanned development in the coastal areas wrote letters to all the coastal States to take adequate measures for protecting the coastal environment. As the follow-up of the PM’s directive, the then Department of Environment & Forests initiated preparation of a guideline for protecting the beaches of the country. These guidelines were prepared by experts and were provided to the coastal State Governments/Union Territory Administrations for implementation in 1997. However, none of the State/UT Governments took the guidelines seriously since, it had no statutory backing.
Taking into note the failure of such guidelines without statutory backing, the Ministry of Environment & Forests carried out an in-house consultation and issued a draft Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 1989 under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 inviting suggestions and objections from public. Based on the comments received from the public, the Ministry finalized the CRZ Notification on 19.2.1991. This Notification regulates all developmental activities in the CRZ area.