Western Ghats ecology: NGT okays junking of Gadgil report

NGT has reiterated an order issued by MoEF in Nov 2013, which said no new project will be given clearance till a final ESA is demarcated

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday passed an order accepting the Centre’s move to junk the Madhav Gadgil report on the Western Ghats, while also maintaining that no environment clearance be accorded to upcoming projects in the region till a final notification marking the eco-sensitive area (ESA) is issued.

The NGT has reiterated an order issued by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) in November 2013, which said no new project or expansion activity will be given clearance till a final ESA is demarcated. NGT said the ministry should continue to enforce this order on the entire Western Ghats till a final notification is issued by the Centre.

This means no development activities in the Ghats for months. By an environment ministry norm, it takes up to 545 days for a final notification to come into effect once an initial draft is notified by the Centre. The government will not be able to clear projects till the final notification in an area of 60,000 sq km that the Kasturirangan panel had defined as eco-sensitive.  Clarifying that it is for MoEF to take all the initiatives to resolve the ESA issue in the Ghats, an NGT bench chaired by Swatanter Kumar accepted the ministry’s affidavit, given this week, asking states to propose including or excluding areas within eco-sensitive zones. NGT said it hoped the ministry acts “with utmost expeditiousness” and “take it to its logical end by issuing a final notification”.

It urged MoEF not to “allow irreversible alterations of the areas in question by granting environmental clearance or permitting activities which would have an adverse impact on the eco-sensitive areas”.

In an affidavit filed before the NGT on Monday, the MoEF said states may undertake demarcation of ESA by physical verification and the proposals will be examined by the Union government before any action is taken. The ministry had earlier raised doubts over the two reports on the Ghats. The first was under ecologist Madhav Gadgil and the other was by a panel under former Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan. It had said it would pursue the latter’s report.

The Gadgil panel had marked an 174,700 sq km area of biodiversity hotspot as an ESA, proposing a three-tiered restrictive regime. However, as states opposed this, another panel under Kasturirangan reviewed it. The new panel suggested a smaller area of about 60,000 sq km be kept as ESA. However, this was also objected to by the states involved. The Tribunal had earlier this month pulled up the Union ministry for continued uncertainty over the issue of protection for the ecologically sensitive Ghats.