By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI, May 25 (Reuters) - A planned law on Indian coastal management threatens marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen by favouring development over conservation, experts and activists said on Friday.

The draft Coastal Management Zone law, due to be announced next month, is a response to India's drive for development as well as strong lobbying from business sectors such as tourism and construction.

"The new law doesn't recognise the rights of fishing communities and also allows for development to take place almost anywhere along the coast," said Sudarshan Rodriguez from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.

"It will devastate fishing communities and destroy vital marine ecosystems."

Around 10 million people live along India's 8,000 km (4,970 miles) coastline -- three million of whom are fishermen and their families.

Activists say these communities are highly skilled, having fished for generations, but they are becoming marginalised as big business moves into these lucrative resource-rich areas.

Sand mining, tourism, fish farming and other types of aquaculture, land reclamation, hydrocarbon exploration and port development are all taking their toll on India's coast, say scientists.

"Coastal areas are the most productive ecosystems which we have and this is why they are so high in demand," said B.C. Choudhary, a scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India.

"There are estuaries, salt marshes, lagoons, mangroves, mudflats, sand dunes and coral reefs, all of which are renewable resources which we depend upon in some way or another."

The draft will replace an existing law known as the Coastal Regulation Zone Act, which has already been watered down and amended around 19 times since its enactment in 1991.

The existing law does not permit development for up to 200 metres from the coast and also recognises the customary rights of fishing communities.

Although the law is poorly enforced, experts said it did help to protect the environment and coastal populations. They want the government to scrap the new draft act and actively enforce the existing law.

"There has been no public consultation on the new draft and we urge the government to put the interests of fishermen and its environment before anything else," said Chandrika Sharma from the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers.

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