PANAJI
The Goa Foundation has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court at Goa challenging the specific clause in the recent CRZ amendment which classifies mangroves that have grown within the khazan lands as CRZ IA and granted them protection.
The Goa Foundation, in its petition has noted that while mangroves need to be protected, those mangroves that have grown within the khazans on account of ingress of saline water should not be allowed the same level of protection as those growing outside the khazans.
“The khazan system is unique to Goa and due to it, a vast farmland (reportedly 18,000 hectares, or thereabouts) has been literally reclaimed from the sea, through the sheer ingenuity of our forefathers. The protection of the khazan system and its embankments is a mandatory requirement in view of climate change and expected sea level rise,” Goa Foundation director Claude Alvares, said.
“The impugned amendment ostensibly (and in good faith) 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. However, in relation to the khazans, mangroves can only be encouraged and protected outside the khazan bunds, not within,” Alvares added.
In an amendment issued in May this year, the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate change modified the definition of the High Tide Line at Goa’s request to now state that “where there exists a bund or a sluice gate constructed in the past, prior to the date of notification issued vide S.O. 114(E) dated 19th February, 1991, the HTL shall be restricted up to the line long along the bund or the sluice gate.”
However, an additional clause added that in such cases, “area under mangroves arising due to saline water ingress beyond the bund or sluice gate shall be classified as CRZ-IA irrespective of the extent of the area beyond the bund or sluice gate. Such areas under mangroves shall be protected and shall not be diverted for any developmental activities.”
The Goa Foundation has challenged the second portion of the amendment arguing that mangroves within the khazans are a result of mismanagement of the embankments and sluice gates. “They are therefore an undesirable development not intended. If they are protected, the khazan areas cannot be rehabilitated. The PIL does not challenge the definition of the HTL in the State of Goa, introduced by the same amendment,” Alvares said.
The Bombay High Court at Goa has issued notices to the relevant parties based on the petition.
