AVES ISLAND

March 10, 2019

The Aves Island project didn’t received clearance from an expert committee on coastal clearance in February as it failed to satisfy the coastal zone regulations.

About:

Aves Island is an island of the Andaman Islands.
It belongs to the Stewart Sound Island sub-group in the North and Middle Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Timeline:

December 2018: The Government of India issued a coastal regulation zone notification that largely allows tourism and development projects located near coasts in mainland States to come up closer to the sea.
January 2019: It issued an Island Zone Protection Notification in to allow similar relaxations in the Andaman & Nicobar (A&N) Islands. It divides the big or major, Andaman Islands into two groups –
- Group 1: Islands with geographical areas of > 1,000 sq. Km.
- Group 2: Islands with geographical areas of > 100 sq. Km but < 1,000 sq. km. the new notification allows development at 20 m and beyond in small islands.
February 2019: However, the proposed Aves island project was not cleared by expert committee on coastal clearance because it was located 20 m away from the High Tide line (HTL). But the existing coastal zone regulations require such projects to be at least 50 m away from the HTL.