Odisha to prepare its coastal management plan by December

With its coast turning more vulnerable due to frequent natural disasters and a rise in population along the coast, the Odisha government will revise its Coastal Zone Management Plan and submit it to the union ministry of forests and environment by end-December.

Officials of the Odisha Coastal Zone Management Authority that is preparing it said the new plan will take into consideration the villages, people, village boundary, fishing zones, infrastructure facilities, such as roads, port, jetty, fish landing centres and other such issues. In the new plan, critically-vulnerable coastal areas requiring special consideration in the CRZ will be accorded special status for protecting the coastal environment and difficulties faced by local communities.

Member-secretary of the OCZMA, K Murugesan said the Bhitarkanika sanctuary area will be treated as a critically-vulnerable coastal area. “In the new CZMP, we want to ensure livelihood security to the fishing communities and other local communities living in the coastal areas like Bhitarkanika. The focus will be on conservation and protection of coastal stretches, development through sustainable manner based on scientific principles taking into account the dangers of natural disasters and sea level rise due to global warming,” said Murugesan.

Officials said stakeholder consulations in all the 7 coastal districts would soon start following which the Odisha Remote Sensing Application Centre will prepare CRZ maps in 1:25000 scale classifying CRZ I, II, III and IV.

While preparing the CZMP, census data of 2011 will be taken into consideration and will be analyzed computing the corresponding density of each habitation.

Once the state government updates its CZMP, it will be presented to MoEFCC for approval, to enable the state government take up the projects in coastal areas. The last CZMP was done in 2011.