Coastal regulation and the marine environment

India's coastline, over 7,500 kilometres long including island territories, supports ports, fisheries, tourism, industry and some of the country's largest cities. The coastal zone is also fragile: mangroves, coral reefs, sand dunes and estuaries protect the shore from storms and erosion, nurture fish, and store carbon. Building too close to the sea, or destroying these buffers, increases the damage when a cyclone or storm surge arrives.

Coastal Regulation Zone, or CRZ, notifications under the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 govern what can be built near the shore. The first notification dates to 1991, and it was replaced by notifications in 2011 and 2019, which divided the coastal zone into categories, with the strictest controls nearest the high-tide line and in ecologically sensitive areas, and more permissive rules for already developed urban areas. Coastal Zone Management Authorities at national and state levels are meant to approve plans and monitor compliance.

Mangroves deserve special attention. They are salt-tolerant forests that shelter fish nurseries, trap sediment and reduce wave energy, and they store large amounts of carbon in their soils. The MISHTI programme, announced in the Union Budget for 2023-24, promotes mangrove plantation along the coastline and on saltpan lands, with community participation. Planting, however, is not restoration on its own: mangroves need the right tidal conditions and species, and a plantation that fails after a year has cost money without creating a functioning ecosystem.

Marine pollution adds a further layer. Plastic waste, sewage, oil spills and industrial effluent reach the sea from land and ships, harming fish, turtles and coral. Coral reefs, notably in the Gulf of Mannar, the Gulf of Kachchh and around Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, are sensitive to warming seas and bleaching, and their loss would damage fisheries and tourism together. International rules on dumping, ballast water and shipping emissions apply alongside domestic law, because the sea is shared.

Coastal policy is therefore a balancing act between development that needs the shore, ports, tourism, housing, and protection that keeps the shore habitable. The CRZ framework tries to draw that line in advance, so that each project is not decided in isolation after damage is done.