PANAJI
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set aside the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority’s (GCZMA) approval for erection of 25 temporary cottages and a shack at Agonda, in Canacona, holding that the coastal regulator had acted in violation of the Beach Carrying Capacity Report and its own earlier safeguards for the ecologically sensitive beach.
The NGT’s Western Zone Bench, Pune, quashed the GCZMA’s September 23, 2024 decision approving the proposal for 25 cottages and one shack in Survey Nos. 101/1 and 101/3 at Agonda. The Tribunal described the conduct of the authority as a “gross violation”.
The Tribunal noted that the Beach Carrying Capacity and Sand Dune Mapping studies prepared by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) had specifically assessed Agonda as having zero additional carrying capacity for shacks. The study, which was accepted by the GCZMA in 2017, had recommended that no additional shacks, huts, tents or cottages be considered at Agonda, which is also a designated Olive Ridley turtle-nesting site.
The Tribunal also took note of the GCZMA’s February 2019 decision, under which it had resolved, as a precautionary measure to protect beach ecology and prevent overcrowding, that new applications for huts, shacks, tents or cottages on private properties and hotels within 0-200 metres of the High Tide Line should not be accepted.
The NGT observed that despite that, GCZMA subsequently granted approval to the Agonda proposal.
The NGT found that the GCZMA’s approval did not provide a cogent explanation for departing from the carrying-capacity assessment and earlier safeguards.
“… GCZMA that how and when their own decision of not allowing any new applications for huts/shacks/tents/cottages in private properties/hotels along the beach area (0-200 mt from HTL) was modified and nor from the side of the Project Proponent, therefore, we set aside the impugned order. Would like to pass an order with respect to setting aside the same on the basis of the violation of their own decision by GCZMA with regards to the Beach Carrying Capacity,” the order stated.
The appeal was filed by Alchemist Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. While the appellant had also raised issues concerning title and rights over the property, the Tribunal said it was not necessary to adjudicate those disputes.
