The environment ministry has constituted a high level working group under Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan to study the Madhav Gadgil led Western Ghats ecology experts? report which had recommended restricting industrial development in about 75% of the hilly terrain spread across six states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The Gadgil panel had recommended banning mining in 60% of hill areas falling in the six states over the next five years and not permitting any new mines in another 15% of the Western Ghats area, which is a globally recognised biodiversity rich zone.
The recommendations of the WGEEP involve demarcation of ecologically sensitive zones and zonal regulation of important sectors of activity such as agriculture, land use, mining, industry, tourism, water resources, power, roads and railways.
The report was widely criticised on grounds of its impact on industries, tribal rights and the creation of of an overarching environmental authority to regulate development in the Ghats.
The environment ministry said that the panel would review the “constitutional implications of Centre-state relations with respect to conservation and sustainable development of the Western Ghats region and the implications of the UNESCO heritage site recognition of some parts of the Ghats?.
