Exclusive economic zone

Also called: EEZ · Topic: India: Location, Size, Extent and Divisions · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 1 "Geographical Diversity of India"

Meaning

The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is the belt of sea beyond India's territorial sea. It reaches up to 200 nautical miles (about 370.4 km) from the baseline (the official coastline from which all sea zones are measured) [6]. In this belt, only India has the right to explore, use and manage the fish, oil, gas, minerals and other resources. India does not have full ownership (sovereignty) of these waters.

India's EEZ covers more than 2.2 million sq km [2]. That is about two-thirds of India's land area. It is a huge store of food, energy and minerals, and it brings security duties too.

Explanation

How the EEZ is measured

• Baseline first: every sea zone is measured from the baseline.
• The baseline is normally the low-water line, which is where the sea reaches at low tide.

• The EEZ's outer limit is a line. Every point on it is 200 nm from the nearest point of the baseline [6].

• Nautical mile: the mile used at sea by ships and aircraft.

• 1 nautical mile = 1.852 km = one minute of latitude (1/60 of a degree).
• So 200 nm ≈ 370.4 km.

• An ordinary land mile (statute mile) is only about 1.6 km long.

• Where the EEZ starts: it begins just beyond the territorial sea (12 nm). It overlaps the contiguous zone (12–24 nm) and runs out to 200 nm.

The legal basis: India's law and UNCLOS

• Maritime Zones Act 1976: its full name is The Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976. It is Act No. 80 of 1976 and came into force on 15 January 1977 [6].

• India already fixed the 200 nm EEZ in this law, before UNCLOS existed [6].

• UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea): the world treaty that sets the rules for using the oceans.

• Adopted in 1982 at Montego Bay (Jamaica).
• Came into force in 1994.
• India ratified it in 1995.
• The EEZ is set out in its Part V.

What India can and cannot do in its EEZ

• India's sovereign rights. These are rights over resources only, not full ownership.
• Living resources: fish, prawns and other sea life.
• Non-living resources: oil, natural gas and minerals.
• Other economic uses: for example, making energy from wind, waves and currents.

• Only India may explore, use, conserve (protect) and manage these resources.

• Freedoms that other countries keep:

• Freedom of navigation: their ships can sail through.
• Freedom of overflight: their aircraft can fly over.

• They can lay submarine cables and pipelines.

• Key point: India's sovereignty stops at 12 nm. Beyond that line, India has resource rights, not ownership.

Why islands make India's EEZ so large

• Every island gets its own 200 nm circle.
• A long chain of islands creates many overlapping circles.

• Together these circles cover a very large area of sea.

• Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Bay of Bengal) and Lakshadweep (Arabian Sea) extend India's sea rights far beyond the mainland coast.

• Why size figures differ: the area is calculated in different ways.
• PIB gives more than 2.2 million sq km [2].
• Other sources give about 2.02 million sq km or about 2.37 million sq km (23.7 lakh sq km).

Where it occurs

• Along India's coast: the EEZ runs along both the west coast (Arabian Sea) and the east coast (Bay of Bengal). Fishing happens in all of it.
• Around the island groups:
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bay of Bengal. These islands lie close to the Malacca Strait, a busy shipping route.

• Lakshadweep, Arabian Sea.

• Mumbai High: offshore oil and gas field in the Arabian Sea off the Maharashtra coast. It lies in the continental shelf / EEZ area.

• Bay of Bengal, India–Bangladesh border: the two countries' sea zones overlapped. An Arbitration Tribunal under Annex VII of UNCLOS settled the border on 7 July 2014. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (The Hague) acted as the registry. The award is final and binding [5].
• Palk Bay (India–Sri Lanka): fishermen often cross the sea border here.
• Beyond India's EEZ: India mines no resources outside its EEZ by right. It holds polymetallic nodule exploration rights in the Central Indian Ocean Basin. Polymetallic nodules are potato-sized lumps on the deep sea floor that contain many metals. This site lies in the International Seabed Area, which the ISA manages. India's allotted area is 75,000 sq km [2].
• Deep Ocean Mission: run by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It was approved in 2021 with ₹4,077 crore for 2021–2026 [4]. It studies the EEZ and the seas beyond. Its main parts are a manned submersible (a small deep-diving craft) that carries three people to 6,000 m, and a mining system for nodules [2][3].

Don't confuse with

• Territorial sea (12 nm): India has full sovereignty here, over the water, seabed and airspace. In the EEZ, India has only sovereign rights over resources.
• Contiguous zone (24 nm): India has policing powers here (customs, fiscal, immigration, sanitary and security) but no resource rights. The EEZ gives resource rights but no such general policing role.
• Continental shelf: this covers only the seabed and subsoil (the rock below it). It can go beyond 200 nm, up to 350 nm, if the CLCS (the UN body that checks such claims) accepts the scientific proof. The EEZ covers the water as well as the seabed but stops at 200 nm.
• High seas: this is all the water beyond every country's EEZ. It is open to all, and no country owns it.

Prelims Hooks

• EEZ = 200 nm ≈ 370.4 km from the baseline. 1 nm = 1.852 km = one minute of latitude.
• Order outwards from the baseline: territorial sea (12 nm) → contiguous zone (24 nm) → EEZ (200 nm) → extended continental shelf (up to 350 nm) → high seas / International Seabed Area.
• Trap: the EEZ is not sovereign territory. Other countries keep freedom of navigation, overflight and laying cables and pipelines.
• India's law came before UNCLOS: Maritime Zones Act, Act No. 80 of 1976, in force on 15 January 1977 [6]. UNCLOS: 1982 (Montego Bay), in force 1994, ratified by India 1995. EEZ = Part V of UNCLOS.
• Size: India's EEZ is more than 2.2 million sq km [2], about two-thirds of its land area. It is enlarged mainly by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
• Trap: the Central Indian Ocean Basin nodule site (75,000 sq km) is not in India's EEZ. It is in the International Seabed Area, under a contract with the ISA [2].

Mains Points

• The EEZ as a resource base (GS-III):
• It supports fisheries and coastal jobs, and offshore oil at Mumbai High.
• Seabed minerals such as copper, nickel and cobalt are needed for batteries and the move to clean energy.

• The Deep Ocean Mission (₹4,077 crore, 2021–26) is India's way to unlock this wealth [2][4].

• Strategy and security:

• The island EEZs give India a large presence at sea. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands sit near the Malacca Strait.
• India has to guard these waters against illegal fishing, smuggling and spying.

• India settles sea borders peacefully under UNCLOS, for example the 2014 India–Bangladesh award [5]. This supports a rules-based order in the Indian Ocean.

• Problems and the policy response:

• fishermen crossing sea borders (Palk Bay);
• overfishing in the EEZ;
• the risk that deep-sea mining harms sea life.
• These need a balanced Blue Economy policy, which means using the ocean's wealth while protecting the ocean.

Related concepts

• Maritime zones of India
• Territorial sea
• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

Read more

• Maritime zones: territorial sea, contiguous zone, EEZ and continental shelf