The Human Rights Forum (HRF) takes strong exception to the atrocious assertion by AP Tourism Minister Kandula Durgesh in the State Assembly recently that tourism development on the coast was being hampered by the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and the government would be seeking relaxations in the CRZ to overcome this.
The CRZ notification, brought forth in 1991, was a framework intended to protect and nourish fragile coastal ecosystems and ensure that the beach was not vandalised. Sadly, over the past three decades and more it was amended manytimes, largely due to pressure from realtors and project profiteers. Time and again economic interests were prioritised over ecological sustainability and conservation principles brazenly disrespected.
Successive governments in the State, whether the Congress, TDP or YSRCP, have only treated the CRZ with contempt and turned a blind eye to unabashed violations by the coast. They have not bothered to invoke the CRZ appropriately so as to stop coastal ecology being pillaged and the environment from being systematically degraded. They have failed to protect the safety and livelihood of local fisher-folk communities at multiple locations. Their hunger for implementing a destructive developmental model is unbridled and they now seek a carte blanche to further pillage and devastate precious ecosystems by the coast. Tourism has to be sustainable, it must not ravage the commons.
The CRZ 1991 has been amended 48 times over the years, not once to truly protect the coast but only to benefit ‘development’ activity! The CRZ is perhaps the most amended delegated legislation in our country. The revisions have invariably weakened environmental protections along the coastline, restricted access to fishing grounds, led to habitat destruction for marine life and degraded biodiversity hotspots and sensitive ecosystems. The changes were pushed through with very little or no public engagement, despite requests and valid suggestions from fisher-folk, urban planners, residents of coastal cities, environmentalists and researchers.
HRF demands that the AP government desist from the regressive idea of seeking further dilution of coastal regulatory norms and to instead take tangible steps to respect and implement the CRZ in letter and spirit.
K Sudha – HRF State Executive Committee member
VS Krishna – HRF AP&TG Coordination Committee member
13-3-2025,
Visakhapatnam.