Panaji, Oct 17 (TOI): The notification of 56,825sqkm of Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive has evoked a mixed reaction from prominent environmentalists. While they appreciated the end to dilly-dallying, they termed it as a piecemeal approach that’s more oriented towards economics than environmental conservation.

The ministry of environment, forest and climate change has recently notified, the Western Ghat’s ecologically sensitive area (ESA), more than seven years after the panel headed by noted ecologist Madhav Gadgil had submitted its report on August 31, 2011.

The ESA has been reduced without following proper procedure, Gadgil said. Speaking to TOI on Tuesday, he said that people had complained to him that K Kasturirangan had moved around with higher officials, but held no dialogue with people. “We had advocated a rational approach, but the gram sabhas have not been consulted,” Gadgil said.

The ministry had constituted the high-level working group headed by Kasturirangan, which had recommended that only 37% of the Western Ghat area be brought under the ESA as compared to 64% suggested by the Western Ghat Ecology Expert Panel headed by Gadgil.

The notified ESA reflects a bit from Gadgil’s report, but the classification of ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) into ESZ 1, 2 and 3 has been overlooked, Kumar Kalanand Mani of Save the Western Ghats, a voluntary organisation, said.

With more focus on ESZ 1, the Gadgil panel had various conservation parameters for the three zones, but the notification has ignored ESZ 2 and 3, which was also missing in Kasturirangan report, he said.

“The government lacks the perception that economic loss can be compensated, but not environment loss. The climate change crisis requires an expedient action to halt mining as well as other environment destructive activities immediately,” Mani said.

Environmentalist Claude Alvares termed this approach of not considering Western Ghats as a contiguous ecosystem stretching from Kerala to Gujarat as unacceptable. “The notification has dismembered the Western Ghats and created pockets, which undermine other pockets sought to be protected. Even if Gadgil report is discarded, contiguity should have been maintained,” he said.

The Gadgil report had recommended forming of a Western Ghat Authority to examine projects in all six states. “But now the ministry has given state government powers to administer the ESA. States are the biggest violators,” Mani said.

Alvares said that the Environment Protection Act has to be administered by the central government. “We have lost hope in the ministry in protecting the environment and we are contemplating legal action,” he said.