Gadgil slams Centre on its policy on Western Ghats

Taking a dig at the Centre on its policy on Western Ghats, renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil today said the Environment Ministry is even hesitant to implement the Kasturirangan Panel report, which according to him was a watered down version of his report.
"Of course, my report will not be implemented. But I understand that Kasturirangan report will also not be implemented," Gadgil, who authored the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report, said in a seminar chaired by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library here.
The Kasturirangan panel was constituted to examine the report authored by Gadgil "in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion" after several states took objections to its recommendations, including complete ban on mining in Western Ghats tagged as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Gadgil, however, observed that people are really interested in preserving the ecology of the Western Ghats.
"I am astounded by the fact that people are really waking up and they are paying attention. At the ground level, people are really interested and they want to get involved and our report is nothing else seems to have served the purpose of triggering this kind of interests," he said reacting to a query.
Chairing the seminar on "Science, Democracy and Ecology", Ramesh, who appointed Gadgil panel during his tenure as Environment Minister, said Gadgil's report on Western Ghats was an "outstanding job".

"Gadgil did an outstanding job. My only regret is that he submitted the report after my exit as the Minister," Ramesh said while taking a dig at the Environment Ministry for keeping Gadgil panel report under raps for quite some time.

Ramesh said if he was the Environment Minister, he would have made it public the moment he got it.
Interestingly, Gadgil has opposed many of the recommendations of the Kasturirangan Panel, saying that it is not nature-friendly and was against the interests of people.
The report, prepared by Kasturirangan-led high-level working group (HLWG), has recommended prohibition on development activities in 60,000 sq km ecologically sensitive area spread over Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.