Crucial report on Western Ghats to be submitted tomorrow

A crucial report on Western Ghats prepared by a high-level working group headed by eminent space scientist K Kasturirangan will be submitted to Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan here tomorrow, sources said.
"The report has given equal importance to conservation and development and it has been prepared in a holistic and multi-disciplinary fashion," a source privy to the development said.
"The report is a very balanced and practical one," the source said without elaborating.
The nine-member panel was constituted to examine the Western Ghats ecology expert panel report prepared under the leadership of eminent environmentalist Madhav Gadgil after different state governments including Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra raised concerns about its recommendations.

The Kasturirangan panel had finalised the report on Monday. It was waiting for the minister's availability for its formal submission, sources said.
"It was a scientific assessment. We have gone very minutely into the landscape of Western Ghats," a panel member, who did not want to be named, said.

In addition to having consultations with the state governments and central ministries concerned, the high level working group has also engaged in consultations with other stakeholders.
The Kasturirangan panel had observed that the Gadgil Committee has had extensive consultations with various stakeholders in respect of ecology and environment preservation issues and that the new panel should not attempt to repeat what has already been done by Western Ghats ecology expert panel.

Western Ghats is the origin of Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri and a myriad of rivers which are lifeline for the people of southern India. On its ecological health depends livelihoods of millions of people belonging to the six Western Ghats states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Western Ghats is also one of the identified hotspots of biological diversity globally and is a treasure trove of biological diversity.