Conservation and Protection of Western Ghats

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• Western Ghats and its Conservation Efforts
• The Sixth Draft Western Ghats Notification
• Challenges Towards Conserving Western Ghats

Why in News?

• The Union Environment Ministry (MoEFCC) has issued a draft notification to declare the Western Ghats an ecologically sensitive area (ESA).
• The ESA includes villages in Wayanad (Kerala), where a devastating series of landslides on July 30 killed at least 210 people, with hundreds more still missing.

Western Ghats and its Conservation Efforts

• About Western Ghats:
  • It is a mountain range (in a stretch of 1,600 Km) parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula.
  • It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the 36 biodiversity hotspots in the world.
  • These are home to high mountain forests, which have been severely fragmented due to human activities, especially clear-felling for tea, coffee, and teak plantations.
• Conservation efforts:
  • In 2010, MoEFCC appointed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), to be chaired by ecologist Dr Madhav Gadgil.
  • It was formed to study the impact of population pressure, climate change and development activities on the Western Ghats.
• Recommendations of the WGEEP:
  • Designate the entire region as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) and classify 64% of the Western Ghats into Ecologically Sensitive Zones called ESZ 1, ESZ 2 and ESZ 3.
  • Almost all developmental activities like mining, construction of thermal power plants, and dams were to stop along with the decommissioning of similar projects that have completed their shelf life in ESZ 1.
  • The report suggested a bottom-to-top approach and the establishment of a Western Ghats Ecology Authority to manage the ecology of the region and to ensure its sustainable development.
• Resistance to the implementation of the WGEEP’s recommendations:
  • Stakeholder states resisted the Gadgil panel recommendations amid fears of hindrance to development and loss of livelihood.
  • In 2012, MoEFCC constituted a High-Level Working Group on Western Ghats under former ISRO chief Dr K Kasturirangan, to formulate a report to replace WGEEP.
• Recommendations of the Kasturirangan-led panel:
  • It notified only 37% (against 64% by Gadgil commission) of the area as ecologically sensitive.
  • It also split the Western Ghats into cultural (human settlements) and natural (non-human settlements) regions. It was suggested that cultural lands be designated as an ESA.
• Status of implementation of above recommendations:
  • In 2017, MoEFCC demarcated an area of 56,825 sq Km in the Western Ghats as ESA as opposed to the 59,940 sq Km recommended by the Kasturirangan committee.
  • Kerala has 9,993 sq km; Karnataka 20,668 sq km, Tamil Nadu 6,914 sq km; Maharashtra 17,340 sq km; Goa 1,461 sq km and Gujarat 449 sq km.

The Sixth Draft Western Ghats Notification:

• Background:
  • The latest draft notification has been reissued because the previous draft (issued in July 2022) expired, and may have been prompted by recent devastating landslides in Wayanad district.
  • This comes 13 years after the first such demarcation was recommended by a panel led by eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil in 2011.
  • Since then, the proposed protected area has shrunk from the original 75% recommendation to the current 37%.
• About the draft notification:
• The proposal for the ESA classification covers six states and 59,940 square kilometres of the Western Ghats or roughly 37% of the range.
• It states that:
  • All new and expansion projects of building and construction with built-up area of 20,000 square metres and above, and
  • All new and expansion townships and area development projects with an area of 50 hectares and above or with built-up area of 150,000 square metres and above shall be prohibited.
• Impact of the latest draft:
  • If finalised, the notification would impose a complete ban on mining, quarrying, sand mining, thermal power plants, and polluting industries in the designated areas.
  • It would also prohibit new construction projects and township developments above certain thresholds.
  • Additionally, hydropower projects and less polluting industries would be regulated, and a monitoring mechanism would be established.

Challenges Towards Conserving Western Ghats:

• The outcome of this long-standing environmental protection effort remains uncertain, with conservation needs clashing with the developmental aspirations in one of India’s most ecologically significant regions.
• As the draft notification now stands, it is up to the Western Ghats state governments to accept or reject the proposal.
• Despite its six iterations, the draft notification is yet to become law, as all six affected States have objected to specific places that have been included in the ESA regions.
• The dominant sentiment in Kerala was that this notification would subsume agricultural plantations, curtail the State’s hydro-electricity plans, and would lead to a migration crisis given the State’s high population density.
• To address states’ concerns, MoEFCC constituted a high-level committee in 2022 to balance
  • Conservation aspects of the disaster-prone pristine ecosystem, and
  • The rights, privileges, needs and developmental aspirations of the region.
  • But is yet to submit its report.

Q.1 What are biodiversity hotspots?

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, a region must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemic, and at least 70% of its primary vegetation has been lost. Globally, 36 zones qualify under this definition.

Q.2. What are shola forests?

Sholas are the temperate forests found in valleys amid rolling grassland in the higher montane regions of South India in the Nilgiris, Anaimalai and Palani hills.