1/8/2018 CRZ puts Sundarbans in jeopardy - Times of India

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CRZ puts Sundarbans in jeopardy

Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay | TNN | Aug 3, 2015, 04.58 AM IST

Not only hotels and resorts, the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) would hit Sundarbans inhabitants hard. The
Coastal Zone regulation would make life difficult as the any construction, whether a school building,
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1/8/2018 CRZ puts Sundarbans in jeopardy - Times of India

dispensaries, public rain-shelters, or a toilet, would require approval from the Coastal Zone Management
Authority (CZMA). The stringent regulations might put the Chief Minister's ambitious mega tourism
development project in complete jeopardy.

These developments has sent the state government into a tizzy. The state government has recently written to
the ministry of environment for deletion of Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve from the section 7 i A (e) of CRZ
notification. The relevant section defines CRZ. In A(e) 'Biosphere Reserves' are included in CRZ-I, making
thickly populated Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) part of CRZ-I.

In a letter written by the state principal secretary, environment, Chandan Sinha to the special secretary
Coastal Zone Regulation Shashi Shekhar (the copy of the letter in possession of ToI), the state government
has appealed for the amendment of the CRZ notification, 2011. "By including the entire area under CRZ-I,
the local people are in danger of being deprived of livelihood opportunities defeating the very objective
underlying the Biosphere Reserve," the letter mentioned.

The letter mentions that SBR includes all areas south of virtual Dampier-Hodges Line (It is an imaginary
line, passing through 24 Parganas South and North districts, which indicates the northern-most limits of
estuarine zone affected by tidal fluctuations) encompassing thickly populated blocks of Haroa, Minakhan,
Hasnabad, Sandeshkhali, Hinaglaganj in North 24 Parganas and Canning, Gosaba, Minakhan, Joynagar,
Mathurapur, Sagar, Kultoli, Patharpratima, Kakdwip, Namkhana, Sagar in South 24 Parganas.

The letter also mentioned that administrative blocks are mostly built-up area with an estimated population of
38 lakh. The biosphere reserve, the letter argued, is purely management concept irrespective of whether it
includes a World Heritage site or any protected area.

Significantly, the regulations would put the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's ambitious Jharkhali eco-
tourism project in jeopardy. In fact, the government run tourist bunglow at Sajnekhali would haave to be shut
as it is in the heart of the sanctuary, said a forest department officer .

Already, livelihood of Sundarbans residents was hit hard after West Bengal Pollution Control Board issued
closure notices against 15 hotels and resorts. More than 2 lakh people of Sundrbans are dependent on these
hotels and tourism directly. "Since there is hardly any alternative livelihood, people will start going back to
jungle for sustaining livelihood. Poaching would again be rampant," said Colonel Shakti Banerjee, director
of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI).

But the hotels have been chosen wrongly. The hotels which are biggest violators of environmental norms,
have been spared from the closure notice. "We have acted upon only on the resorts and hotels mentioned in
the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Bench) order. If they asked us to book everyone, we would do that,"
said a PCB official.

Already, an air of despondence hung lose in Sundarbans air, with so many youths becoming idle. Tourism
sustains their livelihood. Tourism had impacted positively. "Earlier, villagers used to dump their garbage
straight into the river. With the introduction of tourism, we have gradually developed a systematic garbage
disposal system. We set up incinerator. We have developed garbage segregation system by which we
segregate hotel waste and then put them for vermicomposting which generates best manure for Sundarbans
farmers. If this closure continues, there will be second Marichjhapi. So, the government must take immediate
action before much is lost," said Anil Mistri, a poacher-turned forest protector, who is member of Tourism
Monitoring Committee set by Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR).

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