Draft coastal zone plan for city mentions no koliwadas

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of the state move to declare Worli Koliwada a slum in order to allow towers (TOI, November 12), comes the revelation that Mumbai's draft coastal zone management plan (CZMP) will be put up for public consultation without any mention of the koliwadas, the city's original settlements.
In its meeting held on September 1, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) allowed the BMC to hold public consultations on the draft CZMP even as the civic corporation informed the authority that the demarcation of fishing villages has still not been done and it would take considerable time for the super-imposition of the koliwadas on the CRZ maps.The maps have been prepared by IRS (Institute of Remote Sensing) Chennai and revalidated by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM).
State government records show 125 villages in Mumbai. Of these, it is estimated that around 20 are koliwadas and the rest are gaothans. Versova is amongst the largest and richest gaothans in the city. The Machchimar Nagar at Cuffe Parade is a large koliwada. It is here that the 26/11 terrorists landed. The other large koliwada is at Worli, while among the smaller koliwadas are Juhu-Tara, Juhu Koliwada and Moragaon, also at Juhu. Activists are apprehensive that the vision of the CRZ notification 2011 is being side-stepped.
The notification was issued "with a view to ensure livelihood security to the fisher communities and other local communities, living in the coastal areas, to conserve and protect coastal stretches, its unique environment and its marine area and to promote development through sustainable manner based on scientific principles taking into account the dangers of natural hazards in the coastal areas, sea level rise due to global warming".
The new CZMP is long overdue. The Coastal Regulation Zone notification, 2011 mandated that the CZMP must come into being within a year of the notification. Since it has not been finalized, the old CZMP based on the 1991 CRZ notification continues to be in force.
Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta said the CZMP is a technical line which shows the high tide line and the low tide line and hence is prepared by the IRS.
"The CZMP cannot be held back. The koliwadas are villages which are to be demarcated by the revenue department. The role of the BMC comes into play as the planning authority and it has to sanction plans based on the CZMP and the revenue demarcations," he said.
The BMC, he said, has been following up with the revenue department for the demarcations. "It will be done parallelly (the demarcation and the finalization of the CZMP)," he said.
A senior official from the revenue department, who declined to be identified, said the department has held several meetings with regard to the demarcation of koliwadas. "It is a complicated matter. Koliwadas are not defined in terms of boundary like gaothans," he said. The official said there is not sufficient data including maps to ascertain the geographical spread of koliwadas. Besides, several outsiders are now interspersed with the traditional kolis. Also, the database provided by the Centre varies vastly with the database of the state fisheries department.
"We are still deciding on what parameters to use to define the koliwadas. This is important as redevelopment of properties is of great interest and we would want to properly and objectively define the CRZ areas," he said.
Activist and architect P K Das questioned how a plan could be discussed if it does not fully reflect the coastal conditions. "The high tide and low tide impact the lives and livelihoods of fishermen. It is high time we are able to take decisions based on complete information so that plans do not deviate from the original objective," he said.
Advocate Godfrey Pimenta, convenor, Watchdog Foundation, said that in 2011, when the BMC issued the Inception Report declaring its intention to prepare the draft Development Plan, it had marked the koliwadas and the gaothans as urban villages and in the floor space index maps these have been classified under slum clusters for local areas.
"This is nothing but a conspiracy to wipe out all traces of koliwadas and gaothans in the city. There are old city survey maps which the BMC could have used to demarcate these areas. Even today when the BMC issues notice for property tax, it clearly identifies the houses in a goathan or koliwada," he said.
Rajesh Mangela, a fisherman from Juhu and member of the Maharashtra Machchimar Kruti Samiti said the 2011 notification clearly states that koliwadas as identified in the 1981 Development Plan shall be mapped and declared as CRZ-III.
"Our lands have been encroached upon and are being usurped by unscrupulous builders under the guise of slum redevelopment. This is depriving us of our traditional livelihood as we have no place to dry our nets or anchor our boats. We are even being denied access to the sea," he said.