PANAJI: The proposed draft amendment to the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification, 2011, permitting to erect the temporary beach shacks throughout the year, has triggered a wave of concern among the environmental experts, amid the fears that the move would damage the coastal environment.
The experts have warned against washing away of the temporary structures under the rampaging sea in monsoon, during which period the shack operators dismantle their shacks as mandated under the beach shack policy of the tourism department.
Speaking to this daily, an expert member of Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) and former NIO scientist Dr Antonio Mascarenhas said that allowing the beach shacks to remain in the inter-tidal zone during monsoon would result in a highly vulnerable situation wherein the temporary structures are likely to be washed away and get buried.
In a bid to provide a relief to the shack owners in Goa, the Union Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), on April 28, has proposed an amendment to the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification 2011, and has invited objections or suggestions, from the public on the proposals contained in the draft notification before 60 days from the date of publication of the said notification.
The deadline for filing the objections ended on Tuesday, and many people have filed objections, said a source from the environment department.
In Goa, as many as 356 shacks are authorised by the tourism department to operate shacks between October and May. While 258 shacks operate in North Goa, as many as 98 shacks operate in South Goa.
Though the overexploitation of the beaches for tourism-related activities have severely degraded the sand dune habitats, and now allowing the beach shacks to remain during the monsoon will affect the beach ecosystem.
The issue was also discussed during the last GCZMA meeting held last week, and it was decided to ask the tourism department to sensitise the shack operators on the consequences.
The former NIO scientist also feels that the area around the shack would definitely come under the grip of erosive activity, which gets a direct hit from westerly waves and if engulfed/ attacked by high monsoonal waves, the shacks may likely get buried.
He further said that shacks as approved by the government are to be located on the dry beach, ahead of the dunes, by maintaining a setback of 3 metres from the vegetation line and that from the start of vegetation line up to 200 m from high tide line considered as no development zone (NDZ), but in most cases the ecological principles are flouted with impunity.