CHENNAI: Deploring the attitude of the Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNCZMA) for not following earlier directions, the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) instructed the authority to use Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) of 1996 as baseline for preparing a new plan.
When a case filed by P Mahendran came up for hearing, the bench comprising Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and K Satyagopal noted a report filed by the authority that said using a baseline of 1996 CZMP, especially the High Tide Line (HTL), would lead to non-accounting of the changes that occurred in the coastal geomorphology in the intervening period while drawing the latest CZMPs.
The authority also stated that going back to CZMP 1996 would make the entire exercise futile, “as the preparation of the latest CZMPs based on the 2011 and 2019 CRZ notifications are based on more scientific/technical information”.
The bench observed that the authority has not followed the direction issued by the Tribunal in February 2021. “In view of the specific direction issued by this Tribunal, the TNSCZMA should have followed the direction, rather than coming up with some excuses, that too only after the applicant filed an application alleging non-compliance. We deplore the attitude of the authorities of the CZMA,” the bench said.
The Tribunal also noted that the authority has prepared only the draft CZMP and it was not too late for it to direct the authority to undertake the exercise of ground truthing by using the baseline 1996 CZMP. The Tribunal directed the authority to include the applicant in the process and file a report on the preparation. Issuing these directions, the hearing was posted to July 28.
In his complaint, Mahendran alleged that the drafts were incomplete and portions of the waterbody were not shown. There are fundamental and fatal lapses in failing to prepare the CZMP with the correct baseline map, namely the Government of India-approved 1996 CZMP, he had argued.