PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests as well as the National Coastal Zone Management Authority to file their responses to whether the protection granted to mangroves within the khazan area, will, detract from the object of extending full protection to khazan lands in the State of Goa.
The High Court was hearing a petition filed by the Goa Foundation, which challenged an amendment to the CRZ notification done in May 2020, to the limited extent that the amendment grants protection to mangroves that have entered the khazan lands on account of breach in the bunds.
According to plea, the amendment erroneously classifies mangroves found within the khazan areas as “CRZ IA” when in fact the land is part of the khazan system and not the mangrove system.
“The impugned amendment ostensibly seeks to provide the blanket protection offered to all mangroves in the CRZ notification to those mangroves which have grown within the khazan lands as well which are in fact encroachers, growing up in such khazan fields due to break in the embankments. In relation to the khazans, however, mangroves can only be encouraged and protected outside the khazan bunds, not within. Therefore the protection to the mangroves that have grown inside the khazan fields due to saline water intrusion is contrary to the objective of the CRZ Notification, 2011 and will lead to the destruction of the khazan ecosystem in Goa,” the petition said.
The Court decided it would also hear a PIL WP No.21/2019 which challenges the CRZ notification 2019 (which seeks to replace the 2011 CRZ notification) after it was informed that the khazan system loses its protection under the CRZ notification 2019 when the latter comes into force.
