Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP)

It is also called Gadgil Report on erosion in Western Ghats.  Madhav Gadgil panel submitted its report in 2011. Its recommendations were as under:

• Gadgil committee notified 64% of Western Ghats as Eco sensitive.
• The WGEEP, adopting a graded approach, recommended that Western Ghats should be classified into 3 ESZs.

1. ESZ1: Regions of highest sensitivity or ecologically sensitive zone 1
2. ESZ2: Regions of high sensitivity.
3. ESZ3: Remaining regions of moderate sensitivity.

• A ban on growing of single commercial crops like tea, coffee, cardamom, rubber, banana, pineapple that are causing widespread soil erosion.
• “A policy shift is urgently warranted curtailing the environmentally disastrous practices and switching over to a more sustainable farming approach in the Western Ghats.”
• Decommissioning of big projects like dams, thermal power stations that have completed their shelf life.
• It alleged that the EIA of the government was flawed.

Limitations of WGEEP:

• The HLWG, found the following limitations of WGEEP
• Using criteria with incomplete back up information for designating entire Western Ghats as ESA.
• Identifying ESZs without taking into account the human cultural component which is essentially the livelihood and developmental needs of human populations
• ‘Coarse grid size’ used for zonation resulting in the inclusion of entire taluks having only a fraction of ecologically fragile areas as ESZs.
• Just because a windmill project in Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary threatened Maharashtra’s state animal, the Giant Malabar Squirrel, the Gadgil committee had applied a blanket ban on wind mills across western ghats.  
• Existing plantations (ex. Kodagu Coffee) in ESZ be replaced with endemic plant species.

High Level Working Group (HLWG) Kasturirangan Panel:

• It recommended that only 37% of the Western Ghats region be classified as an ESA
• It split the Ghats into two landscapes – cultural and ecological
• Certain villages be identified and notified as ecologically sensitive zones
• It removed the system of gradation recommended by the Gadgil commission.
• It recommended use of ‘red’, ‘orange’ and ‘green’ categorisation of activities according to their polluting effects
• ‘Red’ category industries (like mining and quarrying) be banned, ‘orange’ ones (like food processing, hotels and restaurants, automobile servicing) be regulated and ‘green’ (like processing of grains, apparel-making) be allowed to function as usual.
• New building and construction projects less than 20,000 sq m  for township and area development as well as other such activities will be allowed in ESA.
• Ban of mining, quarrying and sand mining, starting thermal Power plants and red category industries in ESA.
• Hydro and wind power generation will be allowed in ESA subject to stringent conditions

Criticism of HLWG Kasturirangan Panel:

• It does not have a creative solution for the Conservation of the water resources.
• It has suggested  inter-basin water transfer
• It is not clear about the role of gram Sabha in the approval of the projects before implementing those.   

Gadgil Panel (HLWG)	Kasturirangan Panel (HLWG)
1. 64 % of the Western Ghats to fall under the three ecologically sensitive zones	1. Wants only 37% of the Western Ghats to fall under the three ecologically sensitive zones
2.The total area under the Western Ghats is 129037 sq km	2. HLWG, using satellite images, found that it is considerably more 164280 sq km
3. It is rigid in this approach. It had taken an activist position.	3. Incentivisation and not displacement is the HLWG motto
4. Blind to the human cultural component in the Western Ghats	4. It divided the Western Ghats area into cultural and natural landscapes and placed the cultural landscapes, which formed the largest chunk of the Ghats, out of the ambit of ESA
5. Entire area of Western Ghats is considered ESA	5. It is the natural landscape that has been branded ESA in Kasturirangan report
6. Not so	6. It acknowledges and allows for the presence of humans even in areas marked as natural landscape
7. Organic cultivation diktat issued by Gadgil Panel	7. Recommended an incentive based shift to organic cultivation
8. It doesn’t promote tourism	8. Controversially it even promotes tourism
9. Recommended bottom up approach to conservation with Gram Sabhas playing crucial role in decision making	9. Decision making is responsibility of the government and the forest officials
10. Constitutes Western Ghats Ecology Authority under MOEF to monitor conservation of Western Ghats	10. Strengthen current legal framework like State Pollution Control Boards and State Biodiversity Boards
11. Adopted a graded approach and classified into three SEZs – SEZ1, SEZ2, SEZ3	11. ‘Red’, ‘Orange’ and ‘Green’ categorisation of activities according to their polluting effects
12, WGEEP carefully discussed water resources and the need to protect them	12,Did not give special attention to the water resources in the Western Ghats