Environmental Clearance vs CRZ Clearance: Project Impact Assessment and Coastal Zone Regulation

India's coast is crowded with ports, tourism, fishing villages, industry and cities, and fragile with mangroves, coral reefs, sand dunes and turtle nesting beaches. Projects on the coast may need an environmental clearance under the EIA Notification, 2006 and a CRZ clearance under the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2019. The first asks whether a listed project's overall impacts are acceptable; the second asks whether the activity is permissible at all in that particular zone of the coast. Where both are required, the Ministry issues a combined EC and CRZ clearance.

1. Environmental Clearance

Environmental clearance is required for projects listed in the Schedule to the EIA Notification, 2006, granted by the MoEFCC (Category A) or SEIAA (Category B) after screening, scoping, public consultation and appraisal, with conditions for environmental management and monitoring. It applies to listed projects wherever they are located, and it is impact-based: most projects can in principle be cleared with adequate mitigation.

2. CRZ Clearance

The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2019 (notified on 18 January 2019 under the EPA, replacing the 1991 and 2011 Notifications) declares the coastal stretches, and the water area up to twelve nautical miles, as the Coastal Regulation Zone, and prohibits or regulates activities in it. The CRZ is divided into:

• CRZ-I: ecologically sensitive areas (CRZ-IA: mangroves, coral reefs, sand dunes, turtle nesting grounds, salt marshes and similar) and the intertidal zone (CRZ-IB);
• CRZ-II: developed areas within municipal limits;
• CRZ-III: relatively undisturbed rural areas, with a no development zone of 50 metres (in densely populated CRZ-IIIA areas) or 200 metres (CRZ-IIIB) from the high tide line; and
• CRZ-IV: the water area from the low tide line to twelve nautical miles, and tidal water bodies.

CRZ clearance is required for permissible activities in the CRZ. Projects in CRZ-I and CRZ-IV are considered by the MoEFCC, and those in CRZ-II and CRZ-III by the State Government or Union territory, in each case on the recommendation of the Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMA). Projects that also attract the EIA Notification are appraised by the EIA authority with the CZMA's recommendation, resulting in an integrated clearance. Clearance must be consistent with the approved Coastal Zone Management Plan. Certain activities are prohibited outright (new industries, reclamation except for permitted purposes, discharge of untreated waste, destruction of mangroves and coral, and mining of sand from the CRZ except as permitted).

3. Key Differences

4. Case Law

• Kerala State Coastal Zone Management Authority v. State of Kerala (Maradu flats), (2019) 7 SCC 248: the Supreme Court ordered demolition of four high-rise apartment complexes built in violation of the CRZ Notification in an ecologically fragile area near Kochi, and they were demolished in January 2020, with compensation to flat owners;
• Kapico Kerala Resorts Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Kerala, (2020) 3 SCC 18: the Court upheld demolition of a luxury resort built on an island in Vembanad lake in violation of CRZ, holding that permissions granted by local bodies could not override the CRZ Notification;
• Bombay Environmental Action Group v. State of Maharashtra (Bombay High Court, 2018): a total freeze on destruction of mangroves (CRZ-IA) and a fifty-metre buffer; and
• Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action v. Union of India, (1996) 5 SCC 281: the Supreme Court insisted on enforcement of the CRZ Notification, 1991 and on preparation of Coastal Zone Management Plans by the States.

5. Related Topics and Provisions