Context: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has expressed concern after six states asked the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to whittle down the size of eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) under the ecologically fragile Western Ghats by 6,386.65 sq km.
Background

• Last week, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change notified 56,825 sq. km of the Western Ghats as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA). 
• The region, spread across six states, is now a no-go zone for highly polluting or extractive industries such as mining, quarrying, construction and thermal power generation.
• The Western Ghats is of the world’s eight mega-hotspots of biological diversity, and is home to around 325 globally threatened species. 
• In 2012, it was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its ranges serve as important wildlife corridors and form a part of the Project Elephant and Project Tiger reserves.
• The decision will afford much-needed protection for the region, which has been severely fragmented by human activity. However, the demarcation is not without controversy.
• In 2014, the then MoEF issued a draft notification declaring 56,825 sq km in the Western Ghats as ESZ.

Key Facts on Western Ghats

• The Western Ghats are also known as Sahyadri.
• Western Ghats run around 1.6 lakh sq. km, from Kanyakumari to Gujarat and spread across six states.
• Western Ghats is a treasure trove of biodiversity and source of major rivers, including Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery.
• The hills of this area run parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula and span Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• The area is an important biological landscape and hosts a variety of endemic species of flora and fauna.
• Alongside such biodiversity, the Ghats also support about 50 million people.
• The range runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain ‘Konkan’ along the Arabian Sea.
• The range starts near the Songadh town of Gujarat and ends at Marunthuvazh Malai, near the southern tip of India.
• The Western Ghats are older than the Himalayas.

Kasturirangan Committee

• The Kasturirangan committee was headed by Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
• This committee’s report watered down the focus on preserving the environment and recommended that only 37% of the Western Ghats region be classified as an ESA.
• The report essentially split the Ghats into two landscapes – cultural and ecological, with the percentage of ecological landscape standing at 37%.
• The report removed the system of gradation recommended by the Gadgil commission.
• Instead, the former banked on an existing system of ‘red’, ‘orange’ and ‘green’ categorization of activities according to their polluting effects.
• Kasturirangan recommended that ‘red’ category industries (like mining and quarrying) be banned, ‘orange’ ones (like food processing, hotels and restaurants, automobile servicing) be regulated and ‘green’ (like processing of grains, apparel-making) be allowed to function as usual.
• With respect to activities like sand-mining and quarrying, which fall in the ‘red’ category, the Kasturirangan report provided some relief: existing operations would be allowed to continue until their lease expired but that the lease would not be renewed.
• However, conservationists had issues with the dilutions of the Gadgil report. Because only 37% of the Western Ghats were to be regarded as an ESA, the threat posed to the region by developmental activities like hydropower projects remained because they could be setup in the remaining 63%, and still fragment and degrade the landscape.
• The Kasturirangan report was submitted to the environment ministry in 2013 and was quickly met with resistance from politicians as well as members of local communities.

Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ)

• Areas around protected areas to prevent ecological damage caused due to developmental activities around National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
• MoEFCC can designate any area as ESZ.
• Environment Protection Act, 1986 does not mention the word Eco-sensitive Zones.

Act says that central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries & carrying on certain operations on basis of considerations like:

• Biological diversity of an area,
• Maximum allowable limits of concentration of pollutants for an area,
• Environmentally compatible land use, and
• Proximity to protected areas.
• This clause have been used by govt. to ESZ or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFA) & No Development Zones.

MoEFCC has approved guidelines laying down criteria for declaring ESAs, include:

• Species Based (Endemism, Rarity etc),
• Ecosystem Based (sacred groves, frontier forests etc) and
• Geomorphologic feature based (uninhabited islands, origins of rivers etc).