The National Green Tribunal has asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to take expeditious steps to finalise the report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel or any other committee set up to study the environmental sensitivity and ecological significance of the Western Ghats.
A Bench, headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar, Chairperson of the tribunal, has granted the Ministry three weeks’ time, as a last opportunity, to finalise the report of panel, known as the Madhav Gadgil committee, and place it before the tribunal. The Bench listed the matter for further hearing on April 25.
"Needless to notice that this is a matter of some urgency, and it is expected of the Ministry to take expeditious steps to finalise acceptance or otherwise of the Gadgil committee report or any other committee report,” the tribunal said.
Kerala’s submission
The tribunal passed the order on April 2 after Kerala submitted that as the report had not been finalised, commercial activities in, and development of, the State had been affected.
In its report to the Ministry in August 2011, the Gadgil committee had designated the entire Western Ghats an "ecologically sensitive" area.
Counsel for the Ministry submitted that the tenure of a working group, headed by the Planning Commission member K. Kasturirangan, set up to finalise the report had been extended till April 15, when the complete report would be made available to the Ministry.
The tribunal was hearing a petition by non-governmental organisations from Goa, Kerala and Karnataka against grant of any clearance to any new project in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats and implementation of the panel’s report on the protection and preservation of the area.