The move by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to incorporate special provisions for compensatory afforestation of mangrove in the Coastal Regulation Zone rules 2011 for setting up sewage treatment plants in Zone 1 of Mumbai has thrown open an opportunity for Kerala. The Ministry, through the draft notification issued on April 25, plans to amend the rules to incorporate the provisions that the construction of sewage treatment plants in CRZ-I for the purpose of treating sewage from the municipal area shall be taken only by the municipal authorities in exceptional circumstances, where no alternative site is available to set up such facilities, subject to recommendations of the concerned CZMA and approval by the Union Government. Three times the number of mangroves destroyed or cut during the construction process shall be replanted. It has also given 60 days for the public who are likely to be affected by the amendments to send in their objections and suggestions to the proposed amendments. The proposed amendments become relevant to cities like Kochi as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had struck down a conditional clearance issued to the Sewage Treatment Plant of the Kochi Corporation at Mundamveli. While denying permission to the Kochi plant, the NGT had made it clear that permission cannot be accorded to the plant on the condition that compensatory afforestation of mangroves shall be carried out. The NGT passed the order last month on a petition filed by V.D. Majeendran and late T.T. Thambi, residents of Mundamveli. The Tribunal order had thrown a spanner in the plans of the Kochi Corporation to establish the sewage treatment plant in the city. The corporation authorities had also indicated that they would challenge the NGT order in Supreme Court. The Kerala State Coastal Zone Management Authority (KSCZMA) had recommended the project to the Ministry accepting the proposal that compensatory afforestation of mangroves shall be carried out by the Department of Social Forestry. It had also suggested that periodic reports on the compensatory planting should be presented and the Kochi Corporation shall own up the responsibility of preventing destruction of the thus afforested mangrove areas. Criticizing the decision, the NGT South Zone bench observed that the KSCZMA had no authority to pass such orders. The decision permitting compensatory mangrove afforestation was absolutely illegal and that was not permissible, the order said.
2016, The Hindu