Karnataka Rejects Draft Western Ghats Ecological Zone Notification Again

The Western Ghats stretches about 1,600 km along India's west coast, running through six states: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. It is one of the world's eight biodiversity hotspots, and UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 2012. This exact state count is worth remembering precisely, since it is often confused: the Western Ghats spans six states, not five.

Two expert panels have shaped the policy debate on protecting this region. The Madhav Gadgil Committee, formally the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, submitted its report in 2011. It recommended declaring nearly 64% of the Western Ghats as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), using a three-tier system of Ecologically Sensitive Zones with different levels of restriction. This drew strong opposition from state governments over the scale of curbs proposed. In response, the High Level Working Group, chaired by space scientist K. Kasturirangan, was set up in 2012 and reported in 2013. It took a narrower approach, recommending ESA status for about 37% of the region, roughly 59,940 sq km out of the 1.64 lakh sq km it identified as the Western Ghats.

The government has tried to notify the Kasturirangan recommendations as an ESA under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 since 2014. The current draft is the seventh attempt. Each draft gives affected states a window, currently 60 days, to raise objections before a final notification is issued, and Karnataka has rejected every one of these seven drafts.