14 years after the dilution of the Gadgil report, devastation continues in the Western Ghats
Long before the tragedy in Wayanad, extensive work by the expert panel headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil on the ecologically-sensitive area was disregarded.
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The world is facing a climate emergency, and on July 31, the people of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve woke up to the stark reality that they may be inhabiting a dangerously vulnerable landscape.
Maladaptation – development that is blind to climate change – is converging with heavy monsoonal activity to trigger landslides. On July 30, landslides in Wayanad flattened an entire valley and claimed over 400 lives (as per NDTV on August 7).
A theatre of causes now plays out in the media.
The Union home ministry blames the Kerala government for ignoring adverse weather advisories; atmospheric scientists put the disaster down to a warming Arabian Sea and deep cloud systems that release intense rain in short bursts; and some geologists point to deforestation and soil cavities, while others note a river that reclaimed its course. But everyone collectively blames this tragedy on the non-implementation of a certain expert committee’s 14-year-old report: the Gadgil Report.
The Western Ghats Ecology Authority was proposed by the Western Ghats Expert Ecology Panel in its 2011 report – also known as the Gadgil Commission Report, or, simply, the Gadgil Report. The name was derived, of course, from Madhav Gadgil, renowned ecologist and founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, who led the...
