PUNE: Western Ghats have deteriorated substantially and landslides are only going to increase, says eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil, who has worked for over six decades to conserve India’s ecology and communities, especially in Western Ghats.
Gadgil was on Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, which in its 2011 recommended that 75% of the region be declared ecologically sensitive. However, mining, construction and other damaging activities continue unabated, despite increasing frequency of landslides like the one in Wayanad earlier this year, he lamented.
In an interview with TOI on Wednesday, Gadgil said: “They have crossed the tipping point. Many interventions in more sensitive areas that we recommended in our report not to be undertaken, are being extensively put through. We experienced Malin landslide in 2014. More followed – it was Puthumala in Wayanad in 2019, and in Irshalwadi in 2023. Researcher Himanshu Kulkarni’s study shows that from 2010 to 2015, frequency of landslides increased tenfold, and another tenfold in the subsequent five years.”
Gadgil also criticised K Kasturirangan panel report, which proposed to identify only 37% of Western Ghats as environmentally sensitive, terming it “a perversion of democracy, as it does not consider local communities’ voices in economic policy decisions”. “Union govt, in complete letter and spirit, must implement our report that is based on ground facts and scientifically valid, however unpalatable it may be,” he asserted.
Local communities, he stressed, have an important role to play “because it is their interests that are badly hurt”, he said, citing the example of Goa. “I have lived in villages where the local people are paying a heavy price. Their agriculture and fisheries are impacted. They must raise their voices against this.”
“It is clear that those in power are benefitting from quarrying and mining in Goa. The MB Shah Commission estimates the amount of illegal gain made by Goa miners at Rs 27,000 crores. Such people are influencing the state’s policies,” he added.
Asked if fate of Western Ghats would have been different today if aspects of his report were implemented, Gadgil said: “The suggestions we made must immediately be taken on board. Had govt implemented them, the impact would have been substantially reduced. It may not have completely halted the possibility of landslides, but it would have been less.”
