Prateek Tanmay
3 min readNew DelhiJul 28, 2026 10:52 PM IST
The Centre has issued a seventh iteration of a draft notification declaring 56,825.7 square kilometre of Western Ghats, the biodiversity hotspot spread across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as an ecologically sensitive area (ESA).
The fresh draft was issued on Monday – the day sixth iteration lapsed due to a continuing deadlock between the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the states concerned over demarcation of ESA areas.
The ESAs proposed across these states are spread over 449 sq km in Gujarat, 17,340 sq km in Maharashtra, 1,461 sq km in Goa, 20,668 sq km in Karnataka, 6,914 sq km in Tamil Nadu, and 9,993.7 sq km in Kerala.
While Gujarat and Goa have largely agreed upon an area to be finalised as ESA, Maharashtra’s fresh revised proposal is under appraisal. Karnataka continues to oppose the draft notification, while the Centre is still resolving sticking points and information discrepancies with Kerala and Tamil Nadu, respectively.
The Centre has also given a year’s tenure extension to an expert committee, formed in April 2022, which continues to examine the views of the six stakeholder state governments, keeping in view the conservation aspects of the disaster-prone ecosystem, as well as rights, privileges, needs and developmental aspirations of the region. The tenure of the expert committee, headed by Sanjay Kumar, ex-Director General of Forest, MoEFCC, was extended till July 2027 late last month.
As in the previous one, the latest draft notification also recommended a complete ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining in ESAs as well as phasing out of all existing mines within five years from the date of the final notification or expiry of the lease, whichever is earlier.
It also recommends prohibition of new thermal power plants and expansion of existing ones in ESAs. Further, ‘red’ category or the most polluting industries and their expansion is also proposed to be banned in ESAs.
New and expansion projects of building and construction with built-up area of 20,000 sq metres and above, and all new and expansion township projects with area over 50 hectares and above, shall also be prohibited, the draft notification stated.
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It was stated that the draft notification be finalised in a phased manner, either state-wise or through a combined single notification —a provision that was also inserted in the previous draft notification published on August 2, 2024.
The draft notification declaring ESAs in Western Ghats was first issued in March 2014, based on recommendations by the High-Level Working Group (HLWG), headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Kasturirangan. The committee was formed in 2012 to review recommendations of the report prepared by the Western Ghats Expert Ecology Panel, headed by renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil.
