Previous Year Question

Both the Gadgil Committee and the Kasturirangan Committee are related to the ecological conservation of the Western Ghats and the regulation of developmental activities.

The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel was constituted in 2010 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Ecologist Professor Madhav Gadgil chaired this panel; therefore, it is known as the Gadgil Committee.

The panel submitted its report to the Central Government on 31 August 2011.

The Gadgil Committee recommended treating the entire Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive area.

It proposed dividing the Western Ghats into ESZ-1, ESZ-2 and ESZ-3 categories according to ecological sensitivity.

ESZ-1 was regarded as the most sensitive category, and strict restrictions on mining and highly polluting activities were recommended in it.

The Committee emphasized a decentralized and bottom-up conservation framework based on the participation of local bodies and Gram Sabhas.

A High-Level Working Group chaired by Dr K. Kasturirangan was constituted in 2012 to review the Gadgil Report.

The Kasturirangan Committee divided the landscape of the Western Ghats into natural landscape and cultural landscape.

It recommended identifying approximately 37% of the natural landscape, about 59,940 square kilometres, as an ecologically sensitive area.

It recommended prohibiting mining, quarrying, thermal-power projects and highly polluting ‘Red’ category industries in the proposed sensitive area.

Compared with the Gadgil Committee, the Kasturirangan Committee proposed a relatively smaller area for protection and placed greater emphasis on balancing development and conservation.

The Western Ghats extend across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and form part of one of the world’s major biodiversity hotspots.