Issued on 19 February 1991 under section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, the Coastal Regulation Zone notification declared the land within 500 metres of the high-tide line, together with the tidal stretches of creeks and estuaries, a regulated zone. It graded the coast from ecologically sensitive CRZ-I to already built-up urban CRZ-II, restricting construction, reclamation and polluting industry, and obliged every maritime state to prepare a Coastal Zone Management Plan. Revised notifications in 2011 and 2019 relaxed setbacks and streamlined clearances while adding explicit protection for mangroves, corals, turtle nesting grounds and fishing settlements. Enforcement has been fought out through repeated litigation, demolition orders and post-hoc regularisation.
CRZ is the first Indian planning instrument in which ecology rather than property or traffic sets the development line, and it governs the growth of every coastal metropolis from Mumbai and Chennai to Kochi and Visakhapatnam. Its relaxations and breaches sit at the centre of the arguments over Mumbai's coastal road and reclamations, Chennai's waterfront and post-tsunami coastal rebuilding.
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