The government today came out with the demarcation of the country’s ecologically sensitive coastline based on erosion levels, with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh saying no projects would be allowed in the high erosion stretches and declared them as ‘no go areas’.
Asserting the country’s receding coastline is resultant of various human and natural interventions the minister said, “44 per cent of Gujarat cost is actually eroding”.
“This map has been approved by the state (Gujarat) government. This is not a unilateral mapping. 44 per cent of Gujarat coast five plus 10 plus 29 is actually eroding,” the minister said.
“Our concern is really with the eroding area. No project will be allowed in the high erosion stretch. In the medium erosion and low erosion stretch, projects will be allowed only after a comprehensive impact assessment and accumulative impact assessment,” the minister told the reporters after launching the shoreline study maps prepared by Institute for Ocean Management (IOM), Chennai.
Based on these maps, the shoreline is being classified as high erosion, medium erosion and low erosion.
IOM has now completed the study for Gujarat, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
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“High erosion is a no go area, low erosion and medium erosion is go subject to certain conditions,” he said.
He said he was expecting approvals of Tamil Nadu and Orissa very soon.
“I hope by the end of January, we will be making public the coastal erosion maps of all the remaining states,” Ramesh said.
Gujarat has a shoreline of 1,600 kms, Tamil Nadu has 1,000 kms and Orissa’s about 500 kms.
“These are the important states, where we started the exercise. In Gujarat five per cent is high erosion, 10 per cent is medium erosion and 29 per cent is lower erosion,” the minister added.
No review clearance to Jaitapur plant
Unfazed by the growing opposition to the Jaitapur nuclear power plant, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today refused to review the conditional environmental clearance given to it and asked ‘interest groups’ not to use environment as a shield to fire at governments.
“As far as the environment clearance is concerned, we have done all that is required and all different interest groups should not use environment as a shield behind which they start firing their guns at the government,” Ramesh told reporters.
He was responding when asked whether the Environment Ministry would have to rethink about the clearance given to the power plant being built by France in Maharashtra in view of the demands in this regard.
Making a note of “many people having different agenda” in Jaitapur, Ramesh asked those opposing the environmental clearance not to “make mockery” of the process.
“On November 28, the environment clearance for Jaitapur nuclear power project was accorded. The 35 conditions associated with the clearance have also been made public,” he said.
“There are political parties which have never agreed with the fact that our Prime Minister concluded the most successful civil nuclear agreement, of which Jaitapur is the first one,” the Minister said attacking the opponents of the project.
Acknowledging “there are some problems” associated with land acquisition, Ramesh said these would be looked into by the Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan “more sensitively. We have to take local communities along with us”.
His comments came in the backdrop of senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat demanding a re-look into the conditional environmental clearance given to the nuclear plant, noting that it has created a “great deal of disquiet” among locals as well as others across the country.
“There are issues of safety. More importantly there are issues of environment and a conditional clearance given by the Environment Ministry is not enough. Minister Jairam Ramesh is on a mission mode and is trying to implement policies in that mode.
“Therefore, I was quite surprised, indeed shocked and I found he has even given conditional clearance of the plant. It definitely calls for a re-look,” Sinha has said.
The Jaitapur nuclear power complex is located in the ecologically sensitive coastal Maharashtra region which includes Raigad, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts.