The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) consists of coastal land up to 500 meters from the High Tide Line (HTL) and 100 meters along banks of creeks, estuaries, backwaters, and rivers subject to tidal fluctuations. As a part of the Environment Protection Act of 1986, the Ministry of Environment and Forests was ordered to regulate coastal activities from 1991. Currently, the Coastal Regulation Zone around India has been divided into four categories, which ultimately help impose restrictions on industry expansion, activity, and processing.
COASTAL REGULATION ZONES
CRZ-certified spaces have certain rules and regulations that are often implemented. Some of these include restrictions on setting up new industries or expanding existing industries, manufacturing, or hazardous waste disposal, setting up and expanding fish processing units, discharging a city’s untreated water and effluents from industries, and more. These regulations help protect coastal regulation zones based on a variety of criteria, helping preserve our oceans from a capital perspective.
There are 4 categories of CRZ’s, and each has their own set of specific regulations based on their criteria.
- Areas that are ecologically sensitive and important
- Areas that have been developed up to the shoreline
- Areas that are relatively undisturbed
- Coastal stretches in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep
