Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Area: Seventh Draft Allows Phased, State-wise Rollout
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued its seventh draft notification proposing to declare approximately 56,825 sq km of the Western Ghats as an Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA).
The proposed ESA spans six states — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu — covering roughly 1,463 villages, with Karnataka and Maharashtra accounting for the largest shares of the proposed area.
Unlike earlier drafts, this notification allows for phased, state-wise implementation, under which individual states could bring their respective ESA boundaries into force at different times instead of the notification being finalised simultaneously across all six states.
Some states have raised objections to the proposed boundaries, with concerns centring on the effect of restrictions on quarrying, mining and other land-based livelihoods within the notified villages.
The notification opens a fresh window for the public and state governments to submit suggestions and objections before the boundaries can be finalised, continuing a conservation effort for the region that has been underway since 2011.
Gadgil Committee (2011) vs Kasturirangan Committee (2013)
UPSC regularly tests the difference between the two expert reports that underlie every Western Ghats ESA draft. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), chaired by ecologist Madhav Gadgil, and the subsequent High-Level Working Group, chaired by K. Kasturirangan, arrived at very different conclusions on how much of the region needed protection and how.
The 2026 draft is the latest in a lineage of notifications built on the Kasturirangan boundary-mapping exercise; the persistent gap between the ~59,940 sq km Kasturirangan recommendation and the ~56,825 sq km now proposed reflects incremental exclusions made over multiple rounds of state objections since 2013.
Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA): Legal Basis and Process
An Eco-Sensitive Area is a regulatory buffer notified by the Central Government to restrict specified industrial and developmental activities in ecologically fragile regions. It is a distinct legal category from a Protected Area (National Park/Wildlife Sanctuary) under the Wildlife Protection Act.
Because the 2026 notification is only the seventh in a series of drafts, none of which has been finalised since the process began, the phased-implementation option is intended to help states that agree with their portion of the ESA move ahead without waiting for unanimous consensus across all six states.
Forests in the Concurrent List: Centre-State Federalism
The extended Centre-state negotiation over Western Ghats ESA boundaries illustrates how environmental regulation operates as a shared subject under India's federal structure.
The state-specific objections over livelihood impact, and the option of phased state-wise implementation, both stem from this concurrent arrangement, where the Centre can notify but cannot finalise or enforce the ESA without state-level cooperation.
- Proposed ESA area (seventh draft): approximately 56,825 sq km across six states and roughly 1,463 villages.
- States covered: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu.
- Gadgil Committee (WGEEP) report: submitted 31 August 2011; recommended ESA classification for the entire Western Ghats (~1,29,037 sq km), zoned into ESZ1/ESZ2/ESZ3.
- Kasturirangan Committee report: submitted 15 April 2013; recommended ESA of about 59,940 sq km (~37% of the Western Ghats).
- Draft notifications on Western Ghats ESA issued since 2013: this is the seventh such draft (previous drafts issued in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2024).
- Legal basis: Section 5, Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; Rule 5, Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986.