The Madhav Gadgil Committee Report is a comprehensive set of recommendations for the conservation and sustainable management of the Western Ghats, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and major biodiversity hotspot in India. Formally known as the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), it is a report submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India. The committee, chaired by ecologist Madhav Gadgil, was constituted in 2010 to assess the ecological status of the Western Ghats and demarcate ecologically sensitive zones under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The report was submitted on August 31, 2011.
The report's key mechanism was to declare the entire Western Ghats as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) and classify the region's 142 taluks into three levels of sensitivity: Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) 1, 2, and 3. ESZ-1, which covered about 60% of the area, was designated for the strictest protection, with recommendations for a complete ban on new mining, thermal power plants, and large-scale storage dams. A central provision was the recommendation to constitute a Western Ghats Ecology Authority (WGEA), a statutory body with powers under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and to promote a bottom-up approach to governance, giving more power to local authorities like Gram Sabhas.
The Gadgil Report was criticized for being too environment-friendly and impractical, leading to the formation of a subsequent committee. The report connects directly to the Kasturirangan Committee Report (High-Level Working Group), which was set up in August 2012 to study the Gadgil Report in a "holistic and multidisciplinary manner". The Kasturirangan Report significantly amended the original proposal by classifying only 37% of the Western Ghats as ESA, aiming for a balance between conservation and economic growth, and was seen as a less stringent alternative. The original Gadgil Report was never officially adopted by the government.