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UPSC MainsGeneral Studies Paper IIIEnvironment and EcologyPractice question

Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Area Policy Deadlock

Examine the policy deadlock over notifying the Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Area. How can ecological conservation be balanced with regional development?

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How to approach

Start by contextualizing the prolonged delay in notifying the Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA) and mentioning its global ecological significance. Analyze the core drivers of the policy deadlock between the Centre, states, and local communities. Conclude with structural and market-based mechanisms to reconcile ecological conservation with regional socio-economic development.

Model answer

414 words

Introduction

The Western Ghats, recognized as one of the world's 36 global biodiversity hotspots, has been embroiled in an over decade-long policy impasse. Despite recurring draft notifications—including the sixth draft notification in July 2024 proposing approximately 56,825 sq km as an Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA)—consensus among the six riparian states remains elusive amid escalating disaster vulnerabilities.

Reasons for the Policy Deadlock

  • Federal Friction over Delineation Methodology: Recommendations by the Madhav Gadgil Committee (proposing 64% as ESA across three graded zones) and the K. Kasturirangan Committee (recommending 37% as natural landscape ESA) relied significantly on satellite-based remote sensing. State governments like Kerala and Karnataka contend that this top-down mapping erroneously bundled human-dominated 'cultural landscapes' (habitations and plantations) with pristine 'natural landscapes,' imposing impractical blanket prohibitions.
  • Economic and Revenue Imperatives: Proposed bans on commercial mining, stone quarrying, thermal power plants, and red-category industries directly threaten state revenues. Regional administrations argue that halting infrastructure projects stagnates regional economic growth in underdeveloped highland districts.
  • Apprehensions Surrounding Local Livelihoods: Inadequate grassroots consultation has fuelled public apprehension regarding potential land alienation, eviction, and restrictions on cash crops such as rubber, coffee, and cardamom, provoking sustained local protests.
  • Governance Inertia and Vulnerability: The ongoing regulatory paralysis has enabled unregulated construction, slope destabilization, and extensive quarrying to persist unchecked, amplifying climate-induced hazards such as the devastating 2024 Wayanad landslides.

Balancing Ecological Conservation with Regional Development

  • Decentralised Ground-Truthing: Delineation must shift from purely remote sensing models to participatory ground-truthing. Empowering Gram Sabhas under the Forest Rights Act and Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act allows human settlements and agricultural belts to be demarcated outside strict no-go ecological zones.
  • Ecological Fiscal Transfers (EFT): The Finance Commission should enhance horizontal tax devolution criteria for forest canopy cover and eco-fragility, compensating state exchequers for revenue foregone by maintaining strict conservation standards.
  • Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES): Establishing formal PES frameworks can financially reward local smallholders who adopt agroforestry, soil conservation, and organic farming, supplemented by GI-tagging and carbon credit mechanisms for shade-grown forest produce.
  • Cumulative Impact Assessments and Green Infrastructure: Rather than universal prohibitions, essential public infrastructure (such as lifeline rural road connectivity and run-of-the-river hydel generation) should be vetted through rigorous cumulative Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) adhering to climate-resilient engineering norms.

Conclusion

Resolving the impasse requires synthesizing the scientific rigor and practical zoning of the Kasturirangan report with the democratic, bottom-up decentralization advocated by the Gadgil panel. Conservation policies must shift from restrictive prohibitions to participatory, incentive-based frameworks where local communities are primary economic beneficiaries of ecological integrity.

Key facts to remember

definition
Eco-Sensitive Areas (ESAs)

Ecologically fragile zones notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change around protected areas and biodiversity hotspots under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, serving as 'shock absorbers' to regulate industrial and developmental activities.

statistic

While the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (Gadgil Committee) recommended declaring roughly 64% of the Western Ghats as eco-sensitive across three zones, the High-Level Working Group (Kasturirangan Committee) scaled this down to 37% (~56,825 sq km).

— MoEFCC Reports
example
2024 Wayanad Landslides

Catastrophic slope failures and debris flows in Wayanad, Kerala highlighted the acute danger of delayed ESA notification, where unmonitored commercial quarrying, monoculture plantations, and heavy construction destabilized fragile hill ecology.

scheme
Ecological Fiscal Transfers (EFT)

An intergovernmental fiscal mechanism adopted in India wherein the Finance Commission allocates a share of the central divisible tax pool to states based on their documented forest canopy cover to offset developmental opportunity costs.

Frequently asked questions

Why do state governments oppose the Kasturirangan Committee recommendations?

States argue that the satellite-based methodology failed to differentiate between natural forests and populated human settlements (cultural landscapes), fearing that proposed restrictions on quarrying, mining, and red-category industries would severely hurt regional employment and tax revenue.

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