Sanctuary Asia – July 2019

More at http://www.sanctuaryasia.com |Cover Story

Sanctuary Asia, June 2019 27

Oyster beds provide livelihoods to local hand-pickers, particularly fi sherwomen.

acknowledge the existence of fi shing practices in the shallow

waters of the Island City. However, a study by the Collective

for Spatial Alternatives (CSA) documented intertidal and

shallow water fi shing practices, and a survey report by

the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI)

showed the existence of Oyster beds provide livelihoods

to local hand-pickers, particularly fi sherwomen. The CMFRI

report also acknowledged the presence of juveniles of

some commercially important species of fi sh in near-shore

areas, claiming that these acted as a nursery for juveniles.

When challenged with these facts, the BMC insisted that

the fi sher-folk could be compensated or should transition to

deep sea fi shing.

Theirs is a way of life that is synchronous with tidal

rhythms and sensitive to seasonal variations. They practice

self-imposed customary prohibitions to fi shing activity

in certain seasons; as they fi sh close to the shoreline,

and rarely move beyond it, they are also responsible

and concerned about maintaining the health of coastal

ecosystems. They thus feel that it would be both unviable

and unsustainable for them to transition to deep sea fi shing.

The Coastal Road Project, which necessitates reclamation

and intensive construction activity in the foreshore and

near-shore areas will irreversibly damage the coastal

ecosystem, and thereby dispossess the artisan fi shing

community of their traditional occupations, depriving them

of their cultural rights.

Shweta Wagh is a teacher and urban

researcher with the Collective for Spatial

Alternatives (CSA), a planning and advocacy

collective. Her research investigates the

relationships between coastal communities

and their livelihood commons.

More at http://www.sanctuaryasia.com |Cover Story

MARINE - INTERTIDAL BIODIVERSITY:

LEGAL ASPECTS

The Coastal Road is proposed within CRZ-I A and B zones that

provides policy protection of sensitive marine biodiversity like

corals and coral reefs, mangrove habitats, nesting bird sites within

these coastal zones, especially the intertidal areas. The intertidal

areas under coastal policy of the Coastal Regulation Zone

Notifications (CRZ) 2011, are coastal areas demarcated between

the High Tide Line and Low Tide Line. Most CRZ-I A species are

protected under the notification are found only in the CRZ-I B

areas, the area between the High Tide Line and Low Tide Line.

The Coastal Road Project that reclaims the intertidal zones of

Mumbai’s coast therefore violates the coastal policy provisions

and contradicts the rationale of the need to protect intertidal

coastal zones of the city and India’s coastline as a whole..

Based on the Public Interest Litigation filed by Vanashakti in

April 2019, the legal loopholes identified on which the petition

aims for legal protection of the marine-intertidal biodiversity:

1) There is no specific study on the number of species found in

the intertidal zones of Mumbai. However, a collective ‘Marine

Life of Mumbai’ has documented independent expert sightings

of around 320 marine species found in intertidal zones on

iNaturalist. Another independent study by Sagarshakti (Marine

and Coastal research division of Vanashakti) found 36 marine

species on a four hour - two day shore-walk survey at Worli’s

intertidal rocky shores. No public funded body has undertaken

any study on the total number of species and their habitat

existing on the city’s shores.

2) No baseline data is available even on the IUCN list for such

marine-intertidal species, which have been found abundantly

on Mumbai’s shores. Reclamation poses an extinction risk to

all these species in Mumbai’s coastal intertidal shores.

3) The petition in its legal demands requests the scientific

study and impact assessments, specific to these species

found in the proposed intertidal areas to be reclaimed

for the coastal road, to be conducted before the project

reclaims and irreversibly destroys these sensitive

coastal habitats.

4) Corals and Gorgonians, which are found on Mumbai’s

rocky shores are under Schedule I of the Wildlife

(Protection) Act, 1972..

5) Sponges and molluscs, which are found in Mumbai’s

intertidal shores are also mentioned in the Wildlife

(Protection) Act, 1972 among other schedule species.

SHWETA WAGH

SEJAL MEHTA

y

A Gorgonian sea fan.

Sanctuary Asia, June 2019