A massive exercise to list all violations of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms in the State covering the 10 coastal districts will begin shortly.
It is for the first time that an exercise, which is the fallout of the Maradu illegal flats case , of this scale is being planned in the State. A preliminary meeting of the CRZ experts, convened by the Environment Department, was held on Tuesday.
An earlier exercise to identity the violations along the banks of Vembanad Lake did not succeeded as the coastal local bodies defeated it by refusing to complete the verification process.
The exercise, which began on the directive of the Supreme Court, had led to generating data on around 5,000 suspected cases of illegal land-use modifications like removal and destruction of mangroves, reclamation of filtering ponds and wetlands, and construction in wetland areas.
Satellite images have been used for the process. However, the local bodies that were asked to physically verify the changes sat on the directions, thus defeating the initiative.
District panels
This time, the Environment Department plans to compile the list of violators with the help of the district committees of the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA).
The District Collectors concerned will also be involved in the process as they head the committees.
The CRZ violations in Kasaragod, Kannur, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts will be listed under the initiative. It is estimated that 245 village panchayats, 36 municipalities and six Corporations of the State come under the CRZ regime.
Incidentally, Chief Secretary Tom Jose had in his affidavit assured the Supreme Court that identification of all such violations shall be completed in four months.
The State had offered to complete the process in four months as “the violations need to be identified with reference to the date of sanction of the building permits.”
Easier this time
The identification of the CRZ violations would be a relatively easy task this time as the Coastal Zone Management Plan for the 10 districts have been readied with the CRZ areas marked in it.
Satellite imageries
Moreover, the survey numbers of the holdings that come under the CRZ areas have also been included in the plan. While the local bodies and the district committees could physically verify the buildings that have come up in the CRZ area, satellite imageries could be used to identify the land use changes, said an expert.
