Kerala’s Coastal Zone Management Plan Approved

Kerala's ten coastal districts now have Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs) authorized by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change. The 2019 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification is in accordance with this ruling. Building toward the seaward side is one of the development activities made possible by the loosened regulations.

This paper provides a brief overview of the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) of Kerala, India.

• CZMP stands for the coastal zone management plan; it is a guiding managerial tool widely used for managing coastlines for sound development.
• Ten districts, namely Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Kollam, and Thiruvananthapuram, are included in the plan.
• The Ministry has directed the Kerala government to put signed copies of the approved CZMPs in one month.
• The CZMP approval is expected to assist one million people by easing limitations on new constructions of homes and fixing other homes.
• The new rules will shrink the No Development Zone (NDZ), which is invariably adjacent to tidal-influenced water bodies, to 50 meters in many places from 100 meters earlier. 
• The new regulations thus classify 37 of the village panchayats as falling into the category of CRZ III A and have shrunk the NDZ to 50 meters from the HTL.
• They are threatening mangrove ecosystems as the buffer zones around mangroves are cut down from 4300 ha to 2500 ha.
• It can be such a tragedy that extra protection for mangroves is no longer needed, hence meaning that diversity and coasts are at risk.