June 16, 2021

Marine Laws

The law of Nature stated that humans have to depend on environment for their survival. Dependency is the key of continuation of cycle of environment. In simple words we can say that environment is the natural world for example the land, air and water, in which people, animals and plants live. Meanwhile on June 8th of every year the entire World celebrates the Ocean day. We live in the world of concerns where climate change, increasing population, increasing pollution are getting ignored by those who are responsible for it.

Water pollution is a bigger concern these days but Marine pollution is even bigger and vicious. Scientists say a healthy ocean regulates climate and reduce climate change impacts. There are 5 oceans in the world viz. the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic.

India has a long coastline of more than 7500 km. Its marine resources are spread over in the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal. The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the country has an area of 2.02 million sq. km. comprising 0.86 million sq. km. on the west coast, 0.56 million sq. km. on the east coast and 0.6 million sq. km. around the Andaman and Nicobar islands. The east coast supports activities such as agriculture and aquaculture while a number of industries are supported on the west coast. Tourism has emerged as a major economic activity in coastal states such as Goa, Kerala and Orissa.

India is one of the biggest developing Nation. While competing other countries we have to be aware of everything like more Industrialization more naval bases as for security purposes. The major sources of Marine pollution are dumping includes disposal of all types of wastes such as  hazardous and  toxic industrial waste,  waste from  ships and  tankers,  sewerage  waste, pharmaceutical  and  biomedical  waste,  radioactive  waste,  atomic waste,  chemical waste, dumping of plastic and related waste into the oceans and seas. Of lately a lot of studies have been published regarding the harm caused to the marine ecosystems around the world. Strict laws and fines need to be decided up by the concerned authorities to address this menace of plastic litter near the coasts by tourists as well as the locals.

Just like every other concern The united nations interfered and came up with the solutions of this concern globally. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was established to protect the marine environment by governing states to control their pollution to the ocean. It put restrictions on the amount of toxins and pollutants that come from all ships internationally. Many scientific associations suggests different solutions on these issues such as The Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA), also known as the Ocean Dumping Act, regulates the transportation and dumping of any material into ocean waters.

In India there were many Laws and Regulations made for marine environment conservation. Such as

  1. Indian Fisheries Act 1899 and its amendments in 1920 and 1980.
  2. Indian Ports Act 1902
  3. Merchant Shipping Act 1974
  4. Wildlife Protection Act 1972 (Amended in 1991 and then in 2002).
  5. Water (Prevention and control of Pollution) Act 1974.
  6. Indian Coast Guard Act 1974
  7. Marine Zones of India Act (Regulation of fishing by foreign vessels) Act 1981.
  8. Environmental Protection Act 1986.

The implementation and execution of the provisions of the acts have never been adequate. At most times these laws are just in paper.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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