Greenpeace reports that India's coastal ecology is threatened with over 300 planned projects in the Indian coastal area that violate regulations.

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The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification was issued in 1991 to protect India's coasts. In the 19 years since then, it has been progressively weakened to suit industrial and political interests, and most violations have never been punished. In 2009, the UPA government and Jairam Ramesh promised to strengthen the CRZ to ensure it served its original purpose - protecting our coastal spaces and the traditional fishing livelihoods they support. Its time to ask the government to live up to its promise!

The Dhamra port is now nearing completion, even as the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee continues to deliberate on the port’s violation of the Forest Conservation Act.

But it gets worse – over 300 ports are planned across the coast of mainland India. Many of these are in or near mangroves, inter tidal mud flats, breeding and nesting grounds for turtles, horseshoe crabs and other marine creatures. These areas are classified as CRZ1 under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification.

The UPA government and the Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh have publicly promised to protect our coastal spaces. It’s time to hold them to their promises. Greenpeace, along with and a number of other groups is asking Mr. Ramesh to ensure that new ports (or the ‘expansion’ of old ones) is prohibited within 25 km of all ecologically critical coastal areas, to ensure that they are protected from such large-scale development.

Join in with  Greenpeace and demand that new projects do not disrupt the ecological balance.