PANAJI
The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) has directed the Thiruvananthapuram-based National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) to expedite the process of drafting Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) 2019, which is long overdue.
GCZMA took a review of the progress of CZMP 2019, which is being drafted based on CRZ notification 2019. During the meeting, it was noted that mangrove, khazan management plans and turtle nesting plan have been prepared and would be soon shared with local panchayats for public feedback.
On the other hand, a fishermen plan is in process and is pending due to delay in identification of fishermen houses in Mormugao taluka. “Identification of private structures in Mormugao, Salcete, Tiswadi, Canacona, Pernem and Bardez has commenced from September,” the GCZMA observed.
Meanwhile, after initial reluctance, the Chennai-based agency National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), who drafted the CZMP 2011 plan for the State, has provided 1:25000 scale land use shape files as per CRZ Notification 2011 to NCESS on September 24.
However, the shapefiles/ KML of the data pertaining to ports, port limit and harbour, received from the Mormugao Port Authority, has some discrepancies. Upon reviewing the file, NCESS noticed that most of the rivers have been demarcated as a port limit while the coastal land is missing. More importantly, the major Mormugao port limit is not shown at all. Taking cognizance of the same, GCZMA has directed MPA to cross check the data.
NCESS was supposed to submit draft CZMP 2019 to the State government by January 2025; however it failed to do so.
The government has already missed two deadlines “ October 2023 and May 2024, set by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to finalise the plan.
The Technical Scrutiny Committee of the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on CZMP in March, last year, recommended the revised draft CZMP maps on 1:25,000 scale, after the State came across some discrepancies.
Goa is the only State amongst 11 coastal States whose CZMP 2019 finalisation process has been prolonged.
