The Western Ghats are one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. But what does that actually mean?
A biodiversity hotspot is a region with an exceptional concentration of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world, but which has also already lost much of its original natural vegetation. It means this is a landscape that is both extraordinarily rich in life and under significant threat.
The Western Ghats are also much more than a biodiversity hotspot. They are home to millions of people and the source of many of peninsular India’s major rivers. Their forests and natural landscapes capture and regulate water, recharge groundwater, protect soils, store carbon and support agriculture, fisheries and livelihoods within the Ghats and far downstream .
Protecting the Western Ghats is therefore not only about protecting wildlife and forests. It is also about protecting the natural systems that people depend on for water, livelihoods and our own survival.
What is an Ecologically Sensitive Area?
Under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is proposing to notify identified areas of the Western Ghats as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA).
The proposed ESA is intended to provide additional protection to this ecologically important landscape by prohibiting certain high-impact activities and regulating others. It does not mean that all activities within the ESA are prohibited.
How did the Western Ghats ESA proposal begin?
The idea of identifying ecologically sensitive areas that need special protection goes back much before the Western Ghats committees.
In 1999, the Ministry of Environment and Forests constituted a committee chaired by Dr. Pronab Sen to develop objective, scientific and transparent parameters for identifying areas that require special protection under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
The Committee submitted its report in 2000 and described ecological sensitivity in terms of the possibility of permanent and irreparable loss of species or significant damage to ecological processes.
Importantly, the Committee also clarified that identifying an area as ecologically sensitive was not intended to simply curtail activities. It recognised India’s responsibility to conserve these landscapes while using their natural resources sustainably.
The question of how this framework should apply to the Western Ghats has since been debated for more than 15 years.
In 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forests constituted the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, chaired by Prof. Madhav Gadgil. Its 2011 report recommended a graded approach to ecological protection across the Western Ghats. The Panel drew upon the concept of ecological sensitivity developed by the Pronab Sen Committee.
Following concerns and responses to these recommendations, the Government constituted a High Level Working Group chaired by Dr. K. Kasturirangan in 2012. The Group revisited how ecological protection could be taken forward while also considering development and the needs and aspirations of people living in the Western Ghats.
The Kasturirangan Committee recommended identifying a smaller part of the Western Ghats as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), with restrictions on certain high-impact activities.
More than a decade later, the Western Ghats ESA is still to be finally notified.
On 27 July 2026, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued the seventh draft notification, proposing approximately 56,825 sq km across six Western Ghats states as Ecologically Sensitive Area.
Why has the ESA notification not being finalized even today?
The first draft notification for the Western Ghats ESA was issued in 2014. Since then, there have been repeated discussions between the Central Government, the six Western Ghats states and other stakeholders, but the ESA is still to be finally notified.
Karnataka has repeatedly opposed the draft notifications and the implementation of the Kasturirangan Committee recommendations. The State has raised concerns about the impact on people, farmers and livelihoods in the Western Ghats and has argued that large areas are already protected or regulated through Reserved Forests, Protected Areas and Eco-Sensitive Zones.
The State has therefore questioned the need to bring additional areas under the Western Ghats ESA and has sought changes to the areas and villages proposed for inclusion.
More than a decade after the first draft, the Western Ghats ESA is therefore still not finally notified. The 7th Draft was issued on 27 July 2026 and proposes 20,668 sq km in Karnataka as ESA.
What does the proposed ESA actually mean on ground?
Excerpt from The Hindu August 20th, 2026
The Karnataka Government has said that it will reject the 7th Draft Western Ghats ESA notification, citing concerns about its impact on farmers and people living in the Western Ghats.
We wanted to look more closely at what the proposed ESA actually means for people and landscapes on the ground. The Western Ghats are not just forests and mountains. They are living landscapes shaped by rivers, farms, plantations, wildlife and the people who call them home.
So what does the proposed ESA actually mean for these landscapes and the people living within them?
We took two districts in Karnataka Kodagu and Udupi and spatially mapped the villages proposed as ESA. There is currently no spatial database of the proposed ESA villages published by MoEFCC or the State Government.
We overlaid Protected Areas, Eco-Sensitive Zones and wildlife corridors. We also brought in insights from the 2018 Report of the Expert Committee Constituted to Assess the Carrying Capacity of Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs) in the Western Ghats Region of Karnataka.
We then looked at the NCAVES ecosystem accounting study which attempts to put an economic value to some of the benefits we receive from nature. These ecosystem services include water, food, climate regulation and soil protection and are critical for our lives and livelihoods.
Bringing these different layers together helped us understand what the proposed ESA means in the context of the people and landscapes of Kodagu and Udupi.
