Foreword

Our country has a coastline of more than 6000 km length with an estimated estuarine area of 12 lakh hectares. Rapid urban development and growth of both marine and land based industries along the coastline have caused muti-user conflicts amont stakeholders with consequent impacts on our fragile coastal and marine ecosystems. In order to arrest degradation of marine and coastal ecosystem Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification has been brought out in 1991 under the Environmental (Protection) Act, 1986 declaring the coastal stretches as Coastal Regulation Zones for regulating development activities in these Zones.

One of the mojor requirements of the CRZ notification is the development of Coastal Zone Management Plans by the State Governments for coastal stretches under the administrative jurisdiction. Given the multiplicity of beneficial uses, management planning for coastal environment requires an integrated multi-sectoral approcah that takes due care of social, cultural, economic and environmental interests of different stakeholders. This report is

the result of a pilot project aimed at developing such an integrated coastal zone management plan for West Bengal. In this repor, an attempt has beenmade to identify, assess and analysis different sectoral issues of the West Bengal coast through inter-disciplinary exercise.

We hope, this publication will stimulate similar studies to develop integrated coastal zone management for other coastal stretches by the concerned State Government, State Pollution Control Board and other relevant agencies.