While deciding on a project, do regulators know everything about its impacts on the environment or on human health? What actions or decisions can be taken in the event of simply not knowing enough about the impacts of proposed actions? The decision to act or not act, and further how to act in the face of unknowns or uncertainties is the subject matter of the precautionary principle.
This report by Dakshin Foundation deals with the hazards and setbacks in coastal legislation. Laws pertaining to specific ecosystems and their use made an appearance over the last three decades and the law pertaining to coastal spaces – the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 1991 specifically decides what people can and cannot do on the coastal stretches of the country.
The most audible opponents of the Dhamra Port project have been conservation organisations such as Greenpeace, turtle biologists and environmentalists from across the country and beyond.
The site of the proposed Dhamra port project is located on the eastern Indian coast of Orissa, north of the River Dhamra and is about 13 km away from the Nasi group of islands, the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary and the Bhitarkanika National Park. How diligent are the
