The Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) notification, one of India’s longest-pending environmental policy decisions, remains unresolved even after twelve years and five successive draft notifications between 2015 and 2026. Following the expiry of the latest notification in July 2026, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has extended the tenure of the expert panel — currently headed by former Director General of Forests Sanjay Kumar — by another year, once again postponing a final decision on regulating one of the world’s most significant biodiversity hotspots.
This issue is critically important for UPSC aspirants because it exemplifies the persistent tension in Indian environmental governance between ecological conservation imperatives and the livelihood concerns of communities dependent on land use in ecologically fragile zones. The Western Ghats, spanning six states and recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012, host 39 distinct biodiversity hotspot areas, making this a recurring and analytically rich topic across GS Papers I and III.
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The issue also offers a valuable comparative lens for understanding similar Centre-State and conservation-versus-development tensions playing out elsewhere in India, including debates over forest rights, mining regulation, and indigenous community protections — themes with resonance even in states like Bihar, where forest and tribal land rights under laws such as the Forest Rights Act, 2006, remain contentious.
Background and Context
The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), chaired by renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil, was constituted in 2010 and recommended declaring 142 talukas across 44 districts as Ecologically Sensitive Area, further sub-divided into three Ecologically Sensitive Zones based on graded restriction levels. Facing strong political opposition from concerned states, the Centre subsequently constituted a less restrictive panel headed by Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan in 2012, which reduced the proposed ESA coverage to just 37 per cent of the Western Ghats.
Five Important Key Points
- The Western Ghats span six Indian states and contain 39 biodiversity hotspot areas, including national parks, reserved forests, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites declared in 2012.
- The original Gadgil Committee (WGEEP) report of 2011 recommended declaring 142 talukas across 44 districts as Ecologically Sensitive Area, while the subsequent Kasturirangan Committee report of 2013 significantly reduced this to just 37 per cent of the Western Ghats.
- Five successive draft notifications were issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change between 2015 and 2026, but none has been finalised due to sustained opposition from states including Karnataka and Maharashtra.
- Karnataka alone has 10 districts within the Western Ghats, with 23.4 per cent of the state’s population residing there and around 20,668 square kilometres identified for ESA declaration, making it the most affected and most resistant state.
- Following the expiry of the latest notification in July 2026, the government has extended the tenure of the expert panel headed by former Director General of Forests Sanjay Kumar by another year, continuing the twelve-year-long policy paralysis on this issue.
Legal and Constitutional Framework
ESA notifications are issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which empowers the Central government to restrict industries, operations, and processes in areas identified as ecologically fragile. This falls under the Concurrent List framework of environmental protection, requiring cooperation between the Union and State governments, and highlighting the practical challenges of India’s cooperative federalism when ecological priorities conflict with state-level economic and political considerations, such as agriculture, mining, and infrastructure development in the affected regions.
Governance and Federal Tensions
The prolonged delay in finalising the Western Ghats ESA notification illustrates a structural governance challenge: environmental regulations that impose restrictions on economic activities in specific geographic areas face sustained political resistance from affected states, regardless of the ruling party at the Centre or State level. Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu have engaged in ongoing negotiations with the Centre, while Gujarat and Goa have reportedly agreed to finalisation, and Maharashtra has sought a fresh review — reflecting the asymmetric political economy of environmental regulation across states with differing dependence on Western Ghats resources for agriculture, plantation crops, and mining.
Social and Livelihood Dimensions
Field research cited in recent academic studies on villages near Western Heritage Sites in Karnataka’s Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu, Shivamogga, and Udupi districts reveals genuine community anxieties: fears over displacement, restrictions on minor forest produce collection, denial of forest rights claims for long-settled non-tribal residents, and scepticism about the reliability of satellite-based ESA mapping, which communities argue cannot reliably distinguish plantation crops like arecanut and coffee from natural forest cover. These concerns must be weighed against the ecological reality that unregulated mining, quarrying, and tourism development have already caused significant environmental degradation in several Western Ghats districts.
Indigenous Community Considerations
A crucial dimension often underemphasised in the ESA debate is the role of indigenous and forest-dwelling communities, whose traditional, sustainable relationship with Western Ghats ecosystems predates modern conservation frameworks. Effective ESA implementation must integrate indigenous community rights and knowledge systems rather than treating conservation and community presence as inherently conflicting objectives, a principle also embedded in the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
Way Forward
Given the twelve-year delay, a phased, state-wise finalisation approach — as being considered following its inclusion in the 2024 draft notification — offers a pragmatic path forward, allowing states like Gujarat and Goa that have reached consensus to proceed while continuing negotiations with more resistant states. Ground-truthing through physical village-level surveys, rather than exclusive reliance on satellite imagery, would address legitimate community concerns about mapping accuracy. Establishing a permanent, statutorily empowered Western Ghats authority, rather than repeatedly extending temporary expert panels, would provide institutional continuity and reduce the policy uncertainty that currently affects both conservation outcomes and community livelihoods.
Relevance for UPSC and SSC Examinations
This topic is highly relevant to GS Paper III (Environment, Biodiversity Conservation, Environmental Impact Assessment) and GS Paper I (Geography, Physical features of India). Key terms: Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP/Gadgil Committee), Kasturirangan Committee, Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ), Environment (Protection) Act 1986, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Forest Rights Act 2006.