🗞️ Why in News The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued its seventh draft Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA) notification for the Western Ghats on July 27, 2026, proposing 56,825.7 sq km across six states, with public objections invited for 60 days.
The Draft, in Numbers
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Proposed ESA extent | 56,825.7 sq km |
| States covered | Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu |
| Goa’s proposed ESA | 1,461 sq km, across 108 villages, unchanged from the sixth draft (2024) |
| Objection window | 60 days from the gazette publication of 27 July 2026 |
| Key prohibitions | Ban on new mining, quarrying and sand mining; ban on new or expanded thermal power plants, within the ESA |
| Existing mining | Must cease on lease expiry, or within 5 years of final notification, whichever is earlier |
Why “Seventh Draft”
The number itself is the story. A notification reaching its seventh draft without finalisation signals sustained, multi-year resistance from the affected States, each iteration attempting to narrow the footprint or adjust provisions in response to State-level objections, only to stall again.
| Report/Draft | Year | Key feature |
|---|---|---|
| Madhav Gadgil Committee (Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel) | 2011 | Recommended the entire Western Ghats (about 1,29,037 sq km) be declared an ESA in graded zones |
| K. Kasturirangan Committee | 2013 | Scaled back Gadgil’s recommendation to about 37 per cent of the Western Ghats (roughly 60,000 sq km), focusing on remaining natural landscape |
| Draft notifications 1-6 | 2014-2024 | Successive attempts to finalise an ESA area based broadly on the Kasturirangan recommendation, repeatedly extended or redrafted amid State objections |
| Seventh draft | 2026 | Present notification, area of 56,825.7 sq km, revived attention after the 2024 Wayanad landslide |
The Gadgil Committee (2011) took an ecology-first approach, recommending the broadest protective footprint. The Kasturirangan Committee (2013) was commissioned partly in response to State and local pushback against Gadgil’s scope, and proposed a substantially narrower area focused on relatively intact natural landscape rather than the entire Western Ghats geography, including areas already under human settlement and cultivation. Even this narrower Kasturirangan-based approach has taken over a decade and seven drafts to approach finalisation.
What an ESA Notification Actually Restricts
An Eco-Sensitive Area, distinct from a Protected Area (national park, wildlife sanctuary), is a regulatory zone, typically around or within an ecologically significant landscape, where specified activities are prohibited or require special clearance, while other land uses, including habitation and agriculture, generally continue. The Western Ghats ESA is designed around this logic: it targets extractive and heavily polluting activities, mining, quarrying, and new thermal power capacity, rather than imposing a blanket restriction on all human activity within its boundary.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Legal basis | Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, Section 3, empowering the Centre to restrict activities in specified areas |
| What it restricts | New/expanded mining and quarrying, new/expanded thermal power plants |
| What it does not automatically restrict | Existing habitation, agriculture and most non-extractive land use |
| Distinguishing feature from a Protected Area | An ESA is a regulatory buffer, not a sanctuary or park with dedicated management |
The Recurring Fault Line
The core tension driving repeated redrafts has been the gap between an ecology-and-climate-risk framing (championed by conservationists and reinforced by disaster events like the 2024 Wayanad landslide, widely linked to unstable slopes in ecologically degraded terrain) and a livelihoods-and-development framing (championed by hill-state farmers, plantation owners and mining interests who argue the restrictions threaten existing economic activity without adequate compensation or transition support).
| Framing | Core argument |
|---|---|
| Ecology/climate-risk | Unregulated mining, quarrying and land-use change increase landslide and flood risk in a fragile mountain ecosystem, as evidenced by Wayanad |
| Livelihoods/development | Restrictions threaten existing farming, plantation and mining livelihoods in hill districts without adequate transition support |
UPSC Relevance
GS Paper 3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment; disaster management, particularly landslide risk.
Prelims pointers:
- Gadgil Committee (2011): recommended the entire Western Ghats (about 1,29,037 sq km) as an ESA.
- Kasturirangan Committee (2013): scaled the recommendation to about 37 per cent of the Western Ghats, roughly 60,000 sq km.
- The seventh draft (2026) proposes 56,825.7 sq km across six states.
- Legal basis: Section 3, Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
- ESA notification bans new mining/quarrying and new/expanded thermal power plants; existing mining phases out on lease expiry or within 5 years.
Mains question: “The Western Ghats ESA notification has taken over a decade and seven drafts to approach finalisation.” Examine the competing ecological and livelihood considerations driving this delay, and suggest a way forward. (250 words)
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
Western Ghats ESA, seventh draft (2026):
- Proposed area: 56,825.7 sq km, across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- Goa’s ESA unchanged at 1,461 sq km, 108 villages.
- Gazette published 27 July 2026; 60-day objection window.
- Bans new mining/quarrying/sand mining and new/expanded thermal power plants; existing mining phases out within 5 years or on lease expiry.
Committee history:
- Gadgil Committee (2011): entire Western Ghats, about 1,29,037 sq km.
- Kasturirangan Committee (2013): about 37 per cent of the Western Ghats, roughly 60,000 sq km.
- Six earlier drafts (2014-2024) failed to reach finalisation.
- Legal basis: Section 3, Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
Sources: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, PIB
Source: The Seventh Draft: Western Ghats ESA Notification and a Decade of Deadlock — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Current Affairs
