Report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel - Part I - 4. Organization of the report, 5. Activities undertaken :-

Opinion
   13/09/2018
            1396.

4. Organization of the report :

This report is divided in two Parts, Part I and Part II. Part I is the main report of the WGEEP which deals with all the terms of reference while Part II contains elaborate discussion on current status of ecology of Western Ghats and specific detailed write ups on various sectors such as Land Use and Human Settlements, Water resources, Agriculture (including Horticulture and Plantations), Forestry and Biodiversity, Industry – organized, Mining, Power and Energy, Tourism, Transport and Communication, Education, Science and Technology and Information Management on which the recommendations of the Panel made in the main report were based.

Section 1 of this Part I summarizes the issues dealt with in Part I. Section 2 provides an introduction; Section 3 deals with the mandate; Section 4 explains the organization of the report; Section 5 deals with the activities undertaken, Section 6 deals with the boundaries of the Western Ghats region, Section 7 deals with the overall setting of the Western Ghats and Section 8 outlines an inclusive approach to conservation / development issues that WGEEP believes should guide further development when the Western Ghats Ecology Authority (WGEA) has been put in place. Sections 9 and 10 discuss the concept of ecologically sensitive areas / zones, outline the development of a Western Ghats Database employed to demarcate ecologically sensitive zones and lay out the specific proposals of WGEEP for areas within the Western Ghats Region which need to be notified as ecologically sensitive zones 1, 2 and 3 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Section 11 reviews the current pattern of management of ecologically sensitive areas / zones and reviews our experiences with the establishment and management of existing ecologically sensitive areas / zones. Section 12 goes on to review the experience of as yet nascent proposals of establishing ecologically sensitive areas / zones around Protected Areas of Western Ghats. Section 13 outlines an inclusive approach to conservation / development issues that WGEEP believes should guide further development of ecologically sensitive areas / zones in the Western Ghats and proposes a series of guidelines for regulation of activities that may potentially have environmentally adverse impacts as well as promotion of activities that may potentially have environmentally positive impacts in ecologically sensitive areas / zones 1, 2, and 3 in the Western Ghats. Section 14 puts forward our proposals for the establishment, composition and functioning of the Western Ghats Ecology Authority in the Centre and associated state level Western Ghats Ecology Authorities as well as District Ecology Committees. Section 15 provides reviews and recommendations of WGEEP with respect to Athirappilly and Gundia Hydroelectric projects. Section 16 provides a review of the prevalent situation in, and recommendations of WGEEP with respect to Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. Finally, Section 17 provides a review of the prevalent situation in and recommendations of WGEEP with respect to mining leases in Goa. The appendices, annexures and references conclude Part I of this Report.

5. Activities undertaken :-

WGEEP initiated its activities on March 30, 2010 with a meeting in Bengaluru. It has subsequently held a total of 14 Panel meetings, concluding with a meeting on 16-17 August 2011 at Bengaluru. It obtained extensive inputs from the civil society as also Government agencies and technical experts with the help of a series of 42 Commissioned papers, 7 brainstorming sessions, 1 Expert Consultative Meeting, 8 consultations with Government agencies and 40 consultations with civil society groups, and 14 field visits. In addition, extensive inputs were obtained from both Government agencies and civil society groups in Goa through the involvement of two members of WGEEP, Madhav Gadgil and Ligia Noronha as members of Goa Government’s Golden Jubilee Development Council. WGEEP also set up a public website to obtain civil society inputs. Further details of these activities are provided in Appendices B- F.

The mandate of WGEEP poses a number of scientific challenges. It calls for a comprehensive understanding of the current status and ongoing changes in the ecology of this extensive region covering approximately 129037 sq km, with a special focus on the implications of manifold human interventions. A great deal of information on these issues is available; however, the information is of variable quality and reliability, is often not properly referenced spatially, and is poorly organized. Thus, for example, the on-going exercise of the Goa Regional Plan 2021 undertook the tasks of compilation of manifold data scattered with different State Governmental agencies that had never been brought together in one place, and organizing it spatially on a Google Earth image platform. This is something that is readily possible today for the entire Western Ghats tract, and WGEEP decided to initiate such an exercise. Indeed the Pronab Sen Committee had strongly recommended that such an exercise be immediately undertaken for the whole country, as early as 2000. WGEEP has made an appropriate beginning, albeit fully a decade later.

A key mandate of WGEEP is to demarcate areas within the Western Ghats Region which need to be notified as ecologically sensitive zones under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. WGEEP hopes to anchor this on empirical facts with the help of the database that is together for this purpose. An appropriate scientific methodology has been developed for this purpose, and published in the January 25, 2011 issue of the journal Current Science soliciting feedback from the public (Appendix 4).

To be continued ..

JAIHIND
VANDEMATHARAM