India’s Emerging Ecological Public and the Western Ghats …
419
social, ecological and economic challenges. The Agenda 2030 is the successive document of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) following the Millennium
Summit of the United Nations in 2000. MDGs were imperative in building the Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development of the UN in 1992. Popularly known
as Earth Summit, the Rio Summit is responsible for bringing clarity between sustainable development and environmental protection to which India has been a signatory.
In this, the UN sought to help governments rethink economic development and find
alternatives to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources and pollution of
the planet.
Through its mandate to transform the World, the UN envisioned sustainable goals
such as conservation of ecosystems, strengthening the capacity of adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters as critical to
humanity and the planet. As such, the Government of India, by being a party to various international conventions, has demonstrated its deep concern for ecology and has
audited the rapid deterioration of the environment. Many of the concerns on ecology
reflected in Agenda 21 of the Rio Declaration have been voiced in India’s Five Year
Plans. The Pronab Sen Committtee set up by the MoEF in 2000 has discussed widely
the mandate to implement the Rio Summit. The Gadgil Report has often referred to
the Sen Committee Report and has utilised its inputs while classifying Ecologically
Sensitive Areas (ESA) in the Western Ghats.
4
The UN mandate to protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, manage forests, combat desertification, prevent and reverse land
degradation and biodiversity loss is well addressed by the Gadgil Report which also
addresses the concerns of sustainable development goals more eloquently. It is in
tune with the UN appeal to evince the collaboration of vulnerable populations of the
region, government institutions, the private sector and civil society groups of the contiguous states while addressing sustainable development. In many ways the Gadgil
Committee Report is a continuation of India’s considerable interest in coordinating
developmental goals and ecological concerns.
India had demonstrated its urge to industrialise, in order to compete with the
developed world, immediately after independence. In a way, it ignored environmental concerns, downgrading itself to a phase conceptualised by ecological historian,
Ramachandra Guha as ‘ecological innocence’ (Guha 1992). However ecological
concerns began to re-emerge through articulate social movements in 1973. These
movements charted a model of development to replace the ill-conceived resourceintensive development path that India had endorsed in its race for industrialisation.
This brought to light the indiscriminate ecological destruction and reclaimed the role
of locals in protecting the environment. The Gadgil Committee Report is in tune with
the concerns and reflections that these movements highlighted.
4 The Sen Committee proposed a series of species, ecosystem and geo-morphology based parameters
to determine ecologically sensitive areas in India. Its foremost criterion for identification of an
Ecologically Sensitive Area is endemism, and it stated that “the area of occurrence of every endemic
species needs to be protected in its entirety”.
419
social, ecological and economic challenges. The Agenda 2030 is the successive document of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) following the Millennium
Summit of the United Nations in 2000. MDGs were imperative in building the Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development of the UN in 1992. Popularly known
as Earth Summit, the Rio Summit is responsible for bringing clarity between sustainable development and environmental protection to which India has been a signatory.
In this, the UN sought to help governments rethink economic development and find
alternatives to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources and pollution of
the planet.
Through its mandate to transform the World, the UN envisioned sustainable goals
such as conservation of ecosystems, strengthening the capacity of adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters as critical to
humanity and the planet. As such, the Government of India, by being a party to various international conventions, has demonstrated its deep concern for ecology and has
audited the rapid deterioration of the environment. Many of the concerns on ecology
reflected in Agenda 21 of the Rio Declaration have been voiced in India’s Five Year
Plans. The Pronab Sen Committtee set up by the MoEF in 2000 has discussed widely
the mandate to implement the Rio Summit. The Gadgil Report has often referred to
the Sen Committee Report and has utilised its inputs while classifying Ecologically
Sensitive Areas (ESA) in the Western Ghats.
4
The UN mandate to protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, manage forests, combat desertification, prevent and reverse land
degradation and biodiversity loss is well addressed by the Gadgil Report which also
addresses the concerns of sustainable development goals more eloquently. It is in
tune with the UN appeal to evince the collaboration of vulnerable populations of the
region, government institutions, the private sector and civil society groups of the contiguous states while addressing sustainable development. In many ways the Gadgil
Committee Report is a continuation of India’s considerable interest in coordinating
developmental goals and ecological concerns.
India had demonstrated its urge to industrialise, in order to compete with the
developed world, immediately after independence. In a way, it ignored environmental concerns, downgrading itself to a phase conceptualised by ecological historian,
Ramachandra Guha as ‘ecological innocence’ (Guha 1992). However ecological
concerns began to re-emerge through articulate social movements in 1973. These
movements charted a model of development to replace the ill-conceived resourceintensive development path that India had endorsed in its race for industrialisation.
This brought to light the indiscriminate ecological destruction and reclaimed the role
of locals in protecting the environment. The Gadgil Committee Report is in tune with
the concerns and reflections that these movements highlighted.
4 The Sen Committee proposed a series of species, ecosystem and geo-morphology based parameters
to determine ecologically sensitive areas in India. Its foremost criterion for identification of an
Ecologically Sensitive Area is endemism, and it stated that “the area of occurrence of every endemic
species needs to be protected in its entirety”.