Search

The passage and progress of the Coastal Regulatory Zone law from 1991 until today has carried it through a number of environmental and developmental challenges. This law applies to the conservation of fragile ecology and ecosystems surrounding all water bodies such as rivers, creeks, lagoons, estuaries, coral reefs, mangroves, swamps and backwaters. The need for considering environmentalists of the stature of Madhav Gadgil and the Kasturirangan report for preparing a report on the Western Ghats and then succumbing to the populist resistance which followed against their recommendations suggests a need to raise one pertinent question before expanding development into fragile eco-zones: Can the fragile ecology of riverbeds and coasts be preserved without substantive land-use restrictions over them? This chapter attempts to find answers to this question and to demonstrate that the gap which is created due to state failure in acting as a custodian of ‘environmental resources’ has placed the judiciary in a powerful position with immense freedom to interpret the CRZ regulations. This has weakened the spirit of law by reducing the scope and effectiveness of regular administrative agencies expected to implement the law and conservation requirements. This chapter highlights that any wavering on implementing CRZ law will push the fragile vicinity of water bodies into increased vulnerability to disasters, leading to massive socio-economic destruction and loss of lives.

All planetary systems which sustain life are under immense stress of working beyond their carrying capacity disasters is indicative of a system’s breakdown but those without encountering disasters are also gradually sucked in an asphyxiating conduit of starvation, medical issues and stunted economy. This breakdown over the only home we have and the only planet we can survive now demands a serious transdisciplinary reconfiguration of solutions as we cannot afford to have business as usual.

Covid-19 has been the century’s most unprecedented biological disaster yet the response of Indian as well as most other governments around the world to this pandemic has been pavlovian and blind as if, they were caught unawares. Most governments suffered huge losses to their GDP and massive devastation of their markets, livelihood and also their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This suggests that for the next few years SDGs may be subdued, diluted and compromised to the need for survivability and for addressing medical and health priorities in countries affected by Covid-19. This paper attempts to address some fundamental concerns of law, governance and economy, which have been subdued under an overreaction to Covid-19 prevention and mitigation policies. Much of this has largely occurred as per the present study due to lack of institutional preparedness, institutional coordination and failure to encounter a pandemic with an advanced training in community health services which, establishes social attitudes towards disease transmission, its pathology and drug prophylaxis. This paper establishes the logic that disaster preparedness could reduce economic losses, institutional coordination between disaster and health agencies which could have flattened the curve faster and finally a holistic planning of the Covid-19 implementation which would have prevented the dilution of sustainable development goals. The key takeaway from this paper is that disaster preparedness (1) should be a continuously coordinated process, (2) should be a community driven preemptive design (3) should be led by trained personnel. Unless the three conditions are met, no nation can prevent a pandemic from turning into a phenomenal developmental and economic disaster.

Coastal disasters are increasing and one important cause which is being underplayed under a powerful climate change lobby is overconsumption along the coasts both of land and sea resources. Fish and other sea animals, coastal vegetation and plankton are fast depleting, which is leading to reduced carbon sequestration which can withstand sea level rise and counter negative climate impacts. The laws and policies along the coasts are expected to develop a zero tolerance policy toward overuse of coastal ecosystems and to generate sustainable systems, which is the only solution at hand that involves coastal communities.

The latest reports on increasing coastal vulnerability are hair-raising accounts of massive destruction, damage and disappearance of wealth which mankind has throughout history been thinking to be its model of progress and strength. If one makes a modest assessment of projections on coastal sea level rise for 2050, more than 36 million people (projections on 2010 census) would be affected in India alone and around 630 million across the world coasts (Kulp and Strauss, Nat Commun 10, 4844, 2019). Coasts have been treated with ruthless negligence. Their pristine and rare ecosystems continue to disappear, hastening an end to a large majority of species through floods, soil erosion, marine life and bleaching of corals. This depressing scenario is comparable to an ‘Elegy’, a funeral song, and is so thunderous in the coastal rim that all melodious coastal ballads are gasping for life. However, no government can escape behind the ‘Act of God’ argument as projections are sharp and have evolved in the direction of well-targeted data on early warning systems. This chapter suggests a multidimensional approach to mitigate coastal disasters since science has now developed the capacity to ascertain the cause of disasters with greater clarity. A multidimensional approach would require that institutional strengthening, information dissemination and proactive judiciary would together make coasts better prepared and hopefully escape damages and losses from many disasters.

There are many reasons why development has unreservedly lagged behind in the north-eastern India, but an increasing frequency of disasters especially in the poorest regions of these states substantiates the fact that disasters are somewhat linked to failed development. It takes years to develop, but it may not even take a few minutes to wash off this hard earned development due to disasters. The present work found this region as extremely neglected which has been trailing behind the rest of ‘rising or shining India’ (‘Rising or Shining India’ is a metaphor used to describe the country’s sentiment by different political incumbents to power since 2000. It reflects a heightened awakening towards economic reforms, expanding global business and holistic development. The metaphor characterizes those many refreshingly new young entrepreneurs who are driven with a nationalistic desire to excell in a competitive world market. Due to lack of basic services, the region has also not been able to bring down poverty, homelessness, unemployment and outmigration of its rich human resource. Disasters neutralize the gains of development, but by mitigating them through risk reduction and community resilience building, the government can reduce its impact on people. The governments did not develop a mitigation plan, enforce the disaster Management Act (DMA) 2005 and bring the much required institutional strengthening to achieve community resilience and risk reduction. This paper suggests a much needed transdisciplinary approach to bridge an ever-deepening gap between scientific research and institutional decision-making. The paper also sets in motion the concerns taken up by various contributors to this volume on organizational entropy and gradual dystrophy of hill communities due to environmental changes in their habitats.