SIMPLY because we worry about a mountain range, is it going to die? Can the Alps or the Andes perish through excessive human tampering? Can human footprints destroy the Himalaya? At first glance, such scenarios appear impossible, even inconceivable. But don’t we destroy rivers? Have we not already destroyed some? Developed India through its dams has destroyed the Narmada river along with all its cultural artefacts and symbols. It erased the Narmada parikrama from India’s spiritual traditions. Its reservoirs now hold lifeless water.

The removal of mountains, however, is simply not in our capacity, though we have accumulated an impressive record of blasting and flattening several smaller hills into non-existence in our anthropocentric endeavour to make the world comfortable solely for human beings and for activities ‘profitable’ to them which governments senselessly promote.

Mountains, like the Western Ghats – or the Sahyadris as they are known in Maharashtra and Karnataka – are not simply masses of rock, stone, soil, vegetation and water storages. They are living ecosystems: they sport a thick skin of green that protects them from sun, wind and rain (more serious threats than biotic activity), and under that green mantle, they harbour life of immeasurably diverse species. Human beings have always been a part of the package. The symbiotic existence between these living edifices and human beings is seen most vividly in the sustainable lifestyles of tribal communities, like the Todas and the Soligas.

Those, however, who are part of the communities living within the Western Ghats – either in the lap of these mountains or in their immediate shadow – are profoundly disturbed about what has been going on within this region during recent decades. The Western Ghats ecosystem stretches across six coastal states. The authorities, both at centre and all six states, do not appear to have even an inkling of the scale of the ‘development siege’ of these mountains which is making life increasingly difficult for both people who live there and the wildlife.

The massive environmental disasters that befell several parts of Kerala and Karnataka during the 2018 monsoon, repeated in 2019 and on a smaller scale in 2020, are grim indicators that this ancient mountain system is in distress and already losing significant bits of its persona. With the death toll of more than 500 people and loss of property, the common people should not have to live under the fear that the nightmares they faced when the floods struck, with government authorities standing by helplessly, are now set to become a regular and routine feature of their lives.

The Western Ghats extend over a total land area of 1,29,037 sq km. A population of 50 million people is directly dependent on them and on the myriad and sometimes bewildering ecosystems they shelter. Another 200 million people, outside the mountain shadow, in the south of India are able to carry on economic activity due to the waters released – as a massive subsidy – by this mountain range.

Because of their strategic location, the Sahyadris also act as a climate gatekeeper and regulator for the entire subcontinent, influencing the southwest monsoon and the climate of south India. Any disturbance in this situation would have aggravated consequences even as we now have confirmed proof that climate change has firmly gripped the planet.

This is the larger setting. Anyone can see we have a massive problem. The mountains may remain standing because of their sheer mass, but what if their environment turns hostile, as it shows signs of doing, to human civilization, as the disasters in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka have showed?

In themselves – and bereft of human beings – the Ghats are priceless ecological endowments of the planet and the subcontinental land mass. They are one of the five remaining regions of India that have more that 20% of their original habitat intact. The Western Ghats rainforests are ranked on par with those in Borneo, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Madagascar, the Congo basin, and the Amazon basin.

For these reasons, the Ghats are considered one of the planet’s 8 ‘hottest hotspots’ in terms of their significance for conservation of the world’s biodiversity. The region hosts a bewildering 7,402 species of flowering plants, 1,814 non-flowering plant species, 508 species of birds, 139 species of mammals, 179 amphibian species, 290 freshwater fish species, and as many as 6,000 insect species. Many species are endemic to the region and at least 325 species – globally already declared as threatened – live in the forests of this ecoregion.

Some of the threatened species are the Malabar large-spotted civet, lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri langur, Nilgiri tahr, and the Bengal tiger. The reader will be surprised to discover that the Western Ghats, in fact, hosts the largest population of Bengal tigers outside the Sundarbans.

The mountain region has the largest elephant population of the country. It also houses a significant population of mugger crocodiles. More than 80% of the 179 amphibian species found here are endemic. According to records, the Western Ghats house 288 species of freshwater fish including many endemics. More than 508 species of birds are found here including 16 endemic species. As a consequence of international opinion concerning the rich and unique status of the Western Ghats, 39 segments of it now feature in the UNESCO World Living Heritage list.

Millions of people survive simply due to the natural and renewable endowments afforded by the Sahyadris, especially its water. The Ghats are the Water Tower of peninsular India and its population. They form one of the four watersheds of south India, feeding its perennial rivers. The major river systems originating in the Western Ghats are the Godavari, Kaveri, Krishna, Thamiraparani and Tungabhadra. Talakaveri is the source of the river Kaveri and the Kudremukh range is the source of the Tungabhadra. The majority of streams draining the Western Ghats join these rivers, and carry large volumes of water during the monsoon months. These rivers flow to the east due to the gradient of the land and drain out into the Bay of Bengal. Together these rivers provide nearly 20% of India’s mean surface water flow of ~2,000 bcm. This water caters to ~25% of India’s population, 80% of which lives on the Deccan Plateau.

Besides the water and biodiversity endowments, the Western Ghats host a significant population of tribal communities, all protected by the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA). These are the original, indigenous occupants of these mountains. Their habitats and lifestyles are an asset to the Western Ghats ecosystems, since these communities have intimate knowledge of the biodiversity, the wildlife, the water bodies, and they have learned to survive without damaging the delicate fabric of life for hundreds of years. Today, these communities constitute approximately 5% of the Western Ghats dwellers. In recent years with the reduction in forest area, imposition of forest regulations, construction of dams, etc., the lives of the tribal people in the Western Ghats have become highly disturbed.

Before the British opened up the high pastures of the Nilgiris in 1818 to colonial civilization, the latter were the preserve of four major tribes: the Kotas, who gave their name to Kotagiri; the Badagas; the forest dwelling Kurumbas; and the Todas, who with their herds of sacred buffalo, provided milk and ghee. Today there are about 60 Toda settlements around Ooty. The forest regions of Yelandur, Chamarajnagar, Nanjangud and Kollegal – which include Biligiri Rangaswamy and Malai Mahadeshwara hill ranges in the southern part of Karnataka – are inhabited by nearly 20,000 indigenous people, the Soligas. Soligas have coexisted in harmony with the forest for centuries. Their lifeline being forest, by sheer necessity too, preservation of the forest has been ingrained in their culture.

The Halakki Vokkals are confined to the coastal talukas of Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. They have a rich folklore. The Siddis are descendants of African blacks, chiefly found in the forest areas of Ankola, Mundgod, Haliyal and Yellapur taluks. There are 35 tribal communities in Kerala, with a population of 364,180 (37,000 families). Bhils in Maharashtra are considered to be amongst the oldest settlers in the country. The Warli tribe has become famous because of its traditional folk painting art. Goa tribes include Gaudas, Velips, Dhangars and Kunbis.

These living ecological endowments, assets and cultures would normally operate in perpetuity, enabling continuous civilization. However, these natural processes are being irreversibly impaired by indiscriminate ‘developmental’ activities, which continue to remain unregulated due to the sway of narrow political concerns. Over the years, the concerned authorities have either permitted, or turned a blind eye to, several destructive and unnecessary developmental projects. These include the diversion of natural forests, quarrying and mining operations, hydropower projects and infrastructure development. The intensity of the negative impacts of these economic activities, aggravated by the forces – staggering in their nature – unleashed by climate change is now beyond doubt.

Our scientific understanding of the 2018 floods in Kerala and Kodagu district of Karnataka has been deepened by the release of reports on the nature of the disaster and why it occurred. In its investigation report titled ‘A Note on the Preliminary Post Disaster Investigation of Landslides Occurred around Madikeri, Kodagu District, Karnataka’, the Geological Survey of India recommended: ‘Although there are numerous reasons for landslides to occur, the main reason for vast devastation in recent landslides in Kodagu are rainfall and the slope modification by human interference. There are no guidelines or land use regulations to monitor the land use in the area. The State government along with State disaster management authority should frame strict guidelines/ regulations for the landuse in hilly terrains of Western Ghats.’

A World Resource Institute photo essay investigates the causes of the disaster in Kodagu, Karnataka, and highlights certain human activities that exacerbated the impact of the floods. It highlights the following conclusions post the monsoon floods of 2018 in Kodagu alone: (i) Landslides affected 1060 ha, with an economic loss of US$ 300 million; (ii) The Total Suspended Solids (TSS) in the Harangi reservoir increased 100 times the normal load; (iii) Between 2000 and 2017, the region lost forest cover of over 3,000 ha. (above 30% canopy density); (iv) Road density in the lands under susceptible Western Ghats region is almost similar to non-susceptible areas; (v) The Global Landslide Susceptibility Map (NASA generated) published in 2017 at 1 km resolution shows the landslide susceptibility is high (yellow) to very high (red) along the entire stretch of Western Ghats. In fact, as per GSI, 21% of the landslide-prone areas of the country (90,000 sq km) are located in Western Ghats and Konkan Hills.’

A study titled ‘Four Decades of Forest Loss: Drought in Kerala’ on forest depletion in Kerala by the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, shows that between 1973 and 2016, Kerala lost 906,440 hectares (9064.4 sq km) of forest land, and therefore, the forest cover as a percentage of total land area has been reduced from 66.2% to 42.15% in the state.

The rich faunal diversity of the Western Ghats is also under major threat. An increasingly large number of road kills are being reported all along various segments of the Western Ghats habitat. All these findings underscore the need to bring in an urgent conservation regime based on land use that is sustainable, not just for this generation but the coming ones as well.

It is not that there was no official recognition of the importance of the Western Ghats. The erstwhile Planning Commission several decades ago initiated the Western Ghats Development Programme that already imposed certain conditions: for example, a ban on the use of bulldozers. However, the programme was largely an exercise to bring in development, and was never designed for conservation purposes.

I have also mentioned that the government on its part independently, and various state governments as well, has participated in the exercise of declaring certain segments of the Western Ghats as part of the UN list of living heritage assets.

However, on the ground, there was very little recognition of the need to design development programmes that would respect the terrain rather than undermine it. As a result of this lacuna, the usual conventional developmental infrastructural interventions began to be imposed without anybody looking, so to speak. These were large central interventions from encouraging townships, resorts, large number of plantations including tea, coffee and various spices, conventional dams to generate electricity and agricultural interventions like the introduction of tapioca and other crops.

Many of these interventions eventually altered local ecosystems leading to radical changes in biodiversity in their areas (notice the extensive tea and coffee plantations) and diminished the capacity of the Western Ghats ecosystem to deliver on the environmental services it had rendered to human societies over centuries. It was finally left to the initiative of a Goa-based NGO, Peaceful Society, that launched a 100 day foot march in 1987 across the length of the Western Ghats. The march commenced at both ends (Kerala and Gujarat). The youngest marcher in the team, Gautam Sarang, was a mere six years old. The padayatris convened in central Goa in time for the first conference on the Western Ghats. This crucial event, in fact, ensured that whatever happened in the coming years thereafter would rest mostly on the initiatives taken by these activists who formed themselves into the Save Western Ghats Movement, with Peaceful Society as their anchor.

Throughout the decade, however, proposals to set up various industries and major infrastructure (including roads) in these areas, commonly accepted as the Western Ghats, created controversy or were opposed on environmental grounds, many were delayed and never even came up. But ill-suited development projects continued to be expectantly proposed since there were no special norms in force except for those areas in the Western Ghats that had been declared as Protected Areas under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

The narrative relating to the popular stimulus for a legal protective regime for the Sahyadris, came only during the Western Ghats conference held in 2012 at Kotagiri, which then Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh attended. The collective appeal of the Western Ghats participants moved the minister sufficiently to call up his officials from Kotagiri itself to forthwith draft and submit a proposal for setting up of an expert panel that would seriously look at the problems brought forward by the activists.

Finally, the central government issued its notification appointing the Western Ghats Ecology Experts Panel (WGEEP) headed by Madhav Gadgil, formerly of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Except for the Member Secretary (who was from Delhi), the remaining 11 members were all from the Western Ghats. This had an important bearing on the commitment of the panel members who took time out to visit as many parts of the Ghats as possible where they met officials from government, experts, NGOs and professionals. After holding consultations, in August 2011, the WGEEP submitted a two volume report to the central government.

It appears that once they perused the WGEEP report and its recommendations, the government developed cold feet. It first took the Ministry of Environment and Forests nearly a year to acknowledge the submission of the report. The ministry refused to make the report available to the public and activists had to obtain copies under the provisions of the Right to Information Act. Finally, having procured the report, the groups decided to take the implementation of the report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The Kerala government was the first to object to the NGT application, claiming that since the ministry had not accepted or rejected the report, there was no question of a challenge, and therefore the application was not maintainable. The NGT however overruled the objection with a detailed judgement. The ministry was now put to notice.

True to its character, the ministry sought to get out of its responsibility by appointing another committee which it called the High Level Working Group (HLWG), headed by former ISRO Chief, K Kasturirangan. Going by the terms of reference given to the new committee, the HLWG was required to look into the issue of how the WGEEP report could be implemented.

The HLWG, however, did nothing of the sort. It completely ignored the given terms of reference, and within a couple of months produced a new report which severely reduced the area of the Western Ghats that should be accorded protection from undesirable or unrestricted human activity. It generated a fresh exercise of delineating the ESAs (Ecologically Sensitive Areas) of the Western Ghats by adopting a new definition of what, in its opinion, was required to be protected. It naturally came out with a wholly different set of recommendations. The recommendations, definitions etc., of the two committees (WGEEP and HLWG) are set out for easy comprehension and contrast in the table provided.

The government, relieved at the watered-down recommendations of the HLWG, now told the National Green Tribunal that it would enforce its recommendations. The ministry thereafter issued directions under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act on 13.11.2013. The directions inter alia banned the following activities and projects in the proposed ESA of 59,940 sq km (37% of the Western Ghats as identified by the HLWG as ecologically sensitive): (a) Mining, quarrying and sand mining; (b) Thermal power plants; (c) Building and construction projects of 20,000 sq mt area and above; (building upto 19,999 sq mt would be permitted even in an ESA); (d) Township and area development projects about 50 ha and with built up area of 1,50,000 sq mt and above; (townships and projects below that limit would be permitted in an ESA; and (e) Red category of industries (CBCB list and also state list).

The directions also annexed a list of state-wise, district-wise and taluka-wise villages in the ESA identified by the HLWG as part of the proposed ESA. These villages became the outward face of the regulatory regime for conservation of the Ghats. By issuing these directions under Section 5 of the EP Act, the ministry reduced the areas of the Western Ghats to be protected from 1,29,037 sq km (as recommended by the WGEEP) to a mere 59,940 sq km. In 2018 it was further reduced the area for protection to 56,825 sq km.

After issuing the notification, the MOEF invited state government responses to the proposal. As was to be expected, various state governments began opposing even the narrower HLWG recommendations in one form or the other. Kerala, for example, set up the Dr. Oommen V. Oommen Committee in 2013, which practically removed whatever the HLWG had decided for the Kerala ESA, leaving only the forested areas and PAs. Karnataka refused to implement the entire HLWG report. Maharashtra and Goa sought to exclude a large number of villages that were included in the notification.

The steady dilution of the recommendations of even the HLWG led to a reorganization of the civil society groups operating under the fabric of the Save the Western Ghats Movement. The activists decided that it was about time to move the Supreme Court for a comprehensive protection regime for the entire Western Ghats, as originally proposed by the WGEEP.

The writ petition, when filed, was signed by a group of 23 persons and organizations, including seven below the age of 18 who claimed rights to the ecology of the Western Ghats under the principle of intergenerational equity. The petition sought the court’s intervention to protect all the areas recommended for protection by the WGEEP. The petitioners showed to the Supreme Court that even the watered down report of the HLWG had been further diluted by the state governments and that therefore there were very few gains despite the labours of both expert committees. On 18.6.2020, the Supreme Court issued notice on the Western Ghats petition. The matter is now under adjudication before the apex court.

(Published in Seminar, Issue 735 November 2020, New Delhi)