The Centre’s new rules to promote development along India’s coasts will help real estate developers but hurt coastal communities and the ecosystem, former Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh has said.

Ramesh, speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, said the changes announced in the Coastal Regulation Zone 2018 Notification aimed at expanding the area available for development activities, including tourism, have “diluted significantly” existing rules.

The Union cabinet had in December 2018 approved the notification that would set the “no-development zone” 50 metres from the high tide line in densely-populated rural coastal areas with population density of 2,161sqkm or higher.

In rural coastal areas where the population density is below 2,161sqkm, the no-development zone will be 200 metres from the high tide line.

The Centre had said last year that the notification would promote economic growth, create jobs, and improve the quality of life of people living along the coastal areas. The new rules also permit construction of temporary facilities such as shacks and changing rooms at a distance of 10 metres from the high tide along beaches in relatively undisturbed beach areas.

Ramesh, speaking during Zero Hour — a period when any MP can raise issues of public importance — said the new notification will have an adverse impact on coastal ecology and the interests of traditional communities depending on fishing for their livelihood.

“Real estate developments will gain, but at what environmental cost?” Ramesh said. “I urge the ministry of environment … to abandon its over-riding emphasis on the commercial development of coastal areas and stand up for (what) it is supposed to stand up for — namely, protection of the environment.”

The concerns Ramesh raised are similar to what a senior marine scientist had expressed last December.

A senior faculty member at the Berhampur University, Odisha, had pointed out that the higher the density of population along rural coastal areas, the greater the pressure on the ecosystem. The teacher had said a 50-metre no-development zone would place more people closer to the beach and expose them to potential threats such as giant waves that occur during cyclones.

Ramesh also pointed out that sea levels are rising globally and some parts of the country such as the Sunderbans in Bengal are under severe stress. The Sunderbans “is suffering not only because of high rate of sea level rise but also because of reduced downstream transport of sediment which has been attributed to the construction of the Farakka barrage.”