Staff Reporter
Panaji
Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) has ruled that structures built on khazan land prior to the formal declaration of such land as ecologically sensitive zone are legal.
The existing khazan land in the state was declared as eco-sensitive zone on September 7, 2022 under the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) 2011. The GCZMA ruling indicates that the declaration of khazan land as eco-sensitive zone does not have retrospective effect.
“Provisions of the Act will not be applicable retroactively to structures existing prior to the implementation of the Act or
declaration of the area as khazan,” said an officer of GCZMA. “The applicability is generally limited to new structures or situations arising after the Act’s enactment,” he said.
The decision of GCZMA was the outcome
of a complaint filed by a group Tenants Association of Camarcasanacho Budh Camarkhazan, Mapusa, which alleged that a local entrepreneur Alba D’Mello had illegally constructed a permanent structure on khazan land to operate a bar and restaurant.
Following multiple inspections and hearings since January 2023, GCZMA concluded that D’Mello had obtained all the necessary permissions from 2018. It noted that the property was partially located within a mangroves buffer zone and Coastal Regulatory
Zone-II (CRZ-II).
It said the structure was erected outside the CRZ-II and the mangrove buffer, with the entire plot classified as khazan land.
“The law cannot erase history. Structures built with valid past permissions cannot be deemed illegal overnight,” the GCZMA officer said.
Unique to Goa’s coastal ecosystem, khazan lands are traditional saline wetlands critical for flood control and agriculture. The government’s initiative to identify and protect such areas through the CZMP 2011 aims to prevent further encroachment on such land and to restore ecological balance. The non-retroactive application of the law is, however, likely to create challenges for such restoration.
