Environment and Disaster Management › Protected areas and habitats
हिन्दी — Read in HindiForests, grasslands and mountain ecosystems
Forests, grasslands, deserts, islands and mountain ranges: fires, grasslands mistaken for wasteland, and the protection of the Western Ghats, the Aravalli and the Himalaya. Prelims has ranked States by forest cover and asked what the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports proposed for the Western Ghats.
Foundation note: The India State of Forest Report: what the numbers mean
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2019: ranking States by percentage of forest cover to State area
All 3 articles shown; the 2 that changed from 1 July to 30 September 2026 are marked.Show only these
Forest fires
Copy link to Forest firesPrelims and Mains
Forest fires in India are tracked through alerts that the Forest Survey of India (FSI) reads off satellite passes.
- The Himalaya has two fire seasons with different causes, as the figure shows.
- India relies on foreign satellites, which leave two windows a day unwatched.
- Odisha and the north eastern States are the most fire affected over the long term.
- The spread of chir pine into former mixed oak forest in Uttarakhand adds a thick layer of needles that is both fuel and a reason villagers burn.
- In dry forests and savannas periodic low intensity fire is part of the natural cycle, so suppressing every fire lets fuel build up and makes later fires larger.
Western Himalaya
- Pre-monsoon heat
- Pine needles on the forest floor
Eastern Himalaya
- Dry air
- Burning linked to shifting cultivation
What changed
7 Jul 2026
- Fire alerts in the 2026 season were the second highest since 2012, and activity in the first two months ran more than 80 per cent above the previous decade's average.
- Uttarakhand's season, which once began in mid March, now produces fires as early as December.
7 Aug 2026
- The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change found no study linking climate change to rising Himalayan forest fires.
- Its 412th report asked for an Indian geostationary satellite instead of the passes now relied on.
- Only about 12.5 per cent of FSI alerts in Uttarakhand were real fires, which risks alert fatigue.
Mains: India treats fire as a disaster to be put out rather than as an ecological process to be managed.
PIB, 7 Aug 2026: Parliamentary committee report on Himalayan forest fires (opens in a new tab)
Open natural ecosystems
Copy link to Open natural ecosystemsPrelims and Mains
- India's open natural ecosystems, its grasslands, savannas, scrub, ravines and deserts, are still recorded in many places as wastelands, and lose out in land use decisions accordingly.
The barren land fallacy
A grassland is not an unfinished forest, and the species that live on open ground cannot live under a canopy.
The Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area
Copy link to The Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive AreaPrelims and Mains
LeadWestern Ghats: the seventh draft and the question of the lineAugust 2026
Why in news
The Centre issued a seventh draft notification on the Western Ghats Ecologically Sensitive Area on 27 July 2026, after the sixth lapsed. It proposes 56,825.7 sq km across six States, and the States still do not agree on where the line should fall.
Background
- The Western Ghats run through six States: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- They are a World Heritage Site and one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, and the source of the peninsula's major rivers.
- An Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) is notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and damaging activities are restricted inside it.
- A draft notification lapses if it is not made final in time, which is why the same proposal has been issued again and again since 2014.
Two panels, two answers
- The Gadgil panel, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, reported in 2011 and recommended 142 talukas as ecologically sensitive, with graded regulation built upward from the gram sabha.
- The Kasturirangan group followed and cut the area to about 37 per cent of the Ghats, separating natural landscape from cultural landscape where people live and farm.
- The draft notifications follow the Kasturirangan approach, and the Gadgil report remains the reference point for those who want wider protection.
Where the States stand
- Gujarat and Goa appear to agree with the draft.
- Maharashtra wants a review, and Kerala and Tamil Nadu are still negotiating.
- Karnataka, which carries the largest share of the proposed area, opposes it outright and cites livelihoods.
- The expert panel has until July 2027, so a phased rollout, State by State, is possible.
Why agreement is hard
- The area is drawn by the Centre, but land is a State subject, and the restrictions fall on villages, farms and plantations.
- People living in the Ghats fear that a listing will stop roads, houses and farm work, though the curbs are aimed at mining, quarrying, thermal power and polluting industry.
- Each landslide and flood in the Ghats, such as Wayanad in 2024, renews the case for a final notification.
The way forward
- Notify the area State by State where agreement exists, instead of waiting for all six.
- Fix boundaries by ground survey with the villages, so that farms and settlements are not caught by a line drawn from satellite images.
- Pair restrictions with support for livelihoods that suit the landscape, so that conservation is not seen as a cost borne only by local people.
Prelims facts
- The ESA is notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, not the Wild Life (Protection) Act.
- The Gadgil panel is the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel; it recommended 142 talukas.
- The Western Ghats pass through six States; the proposed area is largest in Karnataka, then Maharashtra.
An Ecologically Sensitive Area is a zone notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which may cover a whole landscape such as the Western Ghats rather than a belt around one park.
- It is notified under the same law as an eco-sensitive zone, the belt the Centre draws around one park.
- Where the line falls over the Ghats has not been agreed.
- The Ghats run through six States, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and are a World Heritage Site and one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.
- A seventh draft notification was issued in July 2026 after the sixth lapsed, proposing 56,825.7 sq km across the six States as ecologically sensitive, with Karnataka carrying the largest share, then Maharashtra.
Gadgil panel, reported 2011
- The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, chaired by Madhav Gadgil
- Recommended 142 talukas as an Ecologically Sensitive Area
- Graded regulation, built upward from the gram sabha
Kasturirangan group, reported 2013
- The High Level Working Group, chaired by K. Kasturirangan
- Cut the area to about 37 per cent of the Ghats
- Prohibitions confined to specified activities
What changed
1 Aug 2026LeadWestern Ghats: the seventh draft and the question of the line
27 Sep 2026
- Karnataka's legislature unanimously rejected the Kasturirangan report on 22 September, in response to the seventh draft notification, which covers 56,825 sq km.
- The State wants only forest land included, and a joint physical survey in place of satellite data.
Mains: since the States bear the local cost and the country gains, a State may reject the framework only if it offers an equally considered alternative.
The Hindu, 27 Sep 2026: What is Karnataka’s objection to the ESA? | Explained (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 26 Sep 2026: Narrowed posture: On Karnataka and the Kasturirangan Report (opens in a new tab)
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2017: the number of States the Western Ghats are spread over
- Prelims 2016: the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports on the Western Ghats
Also filed elsewhere
- Aravalli High Powered Committee · on Courts, tribunals and environmental jurisprudence
The High Powered Committee was constituted by the Supreme Court in a suo motu case to examine the Aravalli hills across Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat as a single unit rather than State by State.