AMARAVATI, October 4 — Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Environment, Forests, Science, and Technology, Pawan Kalyan, has ordered a comprehensive, multi-departmental environmental audit across commercial aquaculture, shrimp hatcheries, and processing facilities located in the state's coastal belt.
The directive follows field inspections and public petitions raising concerns over untreated saline effluent discharges, agricultural groundwater salinization, and encroachment on fragile mangrove buffer habitats in Krishna, Godavari, and Nellore districts. A joint enforcement task force comprising officials from the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) and the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA) will verify mandatory pollution control compliance.
The Deputy Chief Minister emphasized that while Andhra Pradesh remains India's undisputed leader in marine seafood exports, economic enterprise must strictly align with ecological sustainability and local agrarian drinking water rights. Non-compliant facilities will face strict enforcement under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act unless verified effluent treatment plants (ETPs) are operationalized within 60 days.
Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules, blue economy regulations, and wetland ecology are integral to APPSC and UPSC GS environmental curricula. Candidates should note that the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA) was established under the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005, to regulate shrimp and coastal aquaculture farms within the coastal regulation perimeter.