Western Ghats ESA Plan: What It Is, Why It Matters and the Concerns

The Western Ghats are a roughly 1,500-km long chain of mountains running along India's western coast. They are one of the country's most important natural ecosystems and are recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot, home to national parks and habitats for tigers and elephants. Unlike the Himalayas, the Ghats are densely populated and form an economic hub for the western states, supporting many cash crops. Protecting this fragile region while balancing the needs of local people has been a long-running challenge.

The plan at the centre of the debate is to declare parts of the Ghats as an Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA). An ESA is a region where certain harmful activities are banned or strictly regulated to protect biodiversity. The proposal has been held up for years because of objections from the six states the Ghats pass through: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. These states have raised concerns about wide restrictions on industries and their impact on local livelihoods.

Two expert reports shaped the plan. The panel led by Madhav Gadgil recommended that almost the entire Ghats region be treated as an ESA with heavy restrictions across sectors. A later working group, chaired by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan, took a more limited approach. Its 2013 report found that about 60 per cent of the region was already a human-dominated 'cultural landscape' of settlements, plantations and farms, and proposed that only the remaining 40 per cent, around 60,000 sq km of 'natural landscape', be notified as ESA with a ban on mining, quarrying, polluting industries, thermal power plants and large constructions.

Based on this, the Centre demarcated about 56,825 sq km as ESA in a draft notification in March 2014, after reducing the area following Kerala's submissions. Since then, six draft notifications have been issued, the latest on July 31, 2024, valid until July 2026. The newest version allows the ESA to be finalised either state by state or through one combined notification, so that states close to agreement are not held back. A committee set up in 2022 has held meetings and field visits with the states and is considering financial incentives for protecting the Ghats.

For exam aspirants, this is an important topic linking the environment and governance. It tests knowledge of Eco-Sensitive Areas, the Western Ghats as a biodiversity hotspot, the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports, and the tension between conservation and the development needs of states under federal cooperation.