10.2 The Western Ghats, Biodiversity & Conservation in Karnataka
Key Takeaways
- The Western Ghats are one of the world's recognised biodiversity hotspots and were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, with several serial sites in Karnataka.
- The Gadgil Committee of 2011 proposed treating the whole Ghats as an ecologically sensitive area in three zones, while the Kasturirangan Committee of 2013 recommended a smaller Ecologically Sensitive Area of about 37% of the Ghats.
- Karnataka has five tiger reserves and holds the largest Asian elephant population of any Indian state, with Bandipur and Nagarahole at the core of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
- Biodiversity Management Committees under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 operate at Panchayat level and maintain the People's Biodiversity Register.
- Human-wildlife conflict around Bandipur, Nagarahole and the Malnad involves crop and livestock loss, and compensation claims rest on field verification of the damage.
Why the Western Ghats Matter
The Western Ghats — locally the Sahyadri — run about 1,600 km from Gujarat to Kanniyakumari, and roughly a fifth of that length lies in Karnataka. They matter for three separate reasons, and a good answer names all three.
- Biodiversity. The Ghats are one of the world's recognised biodiversity hotspots, meaning they combine exceptional species richness and high endemism with serious threat. They hold thousands of flowering-plant species, several hundred of them endemic, along with endemic amphibians, fish, reptiles and birds. Flagship endemics include the lion-tailed macaque, the Malabar giant squirrel, the Nilgiri tahr, the Malabar pied hornbill and the great pied hornbill.
- Water. The Ghats are the watershed of peninsular India. The Kaveri rises at Talakaveri in Kodagu; the Krishna's Karnataka tributaries — Tungabhadra, Malaprabha, Ghataprabha — draw from them; and every west-flowing river of coastal Karnataka begins on their slopes. Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi and the entire irrigated Maidan depend on rainfall the Ghats capture.
- Climate. They force the Arabian Sea monsoon branch to rise, producing the orographic rainfall that makes the Karavali and Malnad wet and, by the same mechanism, leaves the Maidan in a rain shadow.
The Ghats were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012 as a serial property of thirty-nine sites, several of them in Karnataka — including areas in the Kudremukh, Someshwara, Pushpagiri, Brahmagiri and Talakaveri complexes.
The Gadgil and Kasturirangan Reports
The most-asked policy question on the Ghats concerns two expert reports and the difference between them.
| Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (Prof. Madhav Gadgil), 2011 | High Level Working Group (Dr K. Kasturirangan), 2013 | |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Treat the entire Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive area | Distinguish cultural from natural landscape |
| Zoning | Three zones — ESZ-1, ESZ-2, ESZ-3 — with graded restrictions | A single Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) covering about 37% of the Ghats |
| Governance | A Western Ghats Ecology Authority, with a strong bottom-up role for Gram Sabhas | Regulation of specified activities within the ESA |
| Restrictions | Phase out mining, ban new thermal plants, restrict large dams and polluting industry in higher zones | Ban mining, quarrying, thermal power and large-scale construction within the ESA |
| Reception in Karnataka | Opposed by many Malnad and Kodagu communities and by successive state governments as too restrictive on livelihoods | Also contested; the ESA notification has been repeatedly drafted and revised |
The live tension is genuine and worth stating in a descriptive answer: the same landscape carries plantation livelihoods, hill towns, roads and power lines, and the country's most important watershed. Neither pure prohibition nor unrestricted development answers it, which is why the ESA boundary has remained contested for more than a decade.
Karnataka's Protected-Area Network
| Category | Karnataka |
|---|---|
| Tiger reserves (5) | Bandipur, Nagarahole (Rajiv Gandhi), Bhadra, Kali (formerly Anshi-Dandeli), Biligiri Rangana Betta (BRT) |
| Biosphere reserve | Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve — India's first (1986) — with Bandipur and Nagarahole in its core |
| National parks | Bandipur, Nagarahole, Bannerghatta, Kudremukh, Anshi |
| Notable sanctuaries | Ranganathittu (birds), Daroji (sloth bear), Bhimgad (Wroughton's free-tailed bat), Brahmagiri, Pushpagiri, Talakaveri, Someshwara, Mookambika, Sharavathi Valley, Dandeli, Melukote (wolf), Jayamangali (blackbuck) |
| Elephant reserves | Mysore Elephant Reserve and others; Karnataka holds the largest Asian elephant population in India |
| Community conservation | Sacred groves (devarakadu in Kodagu), village forest committees, Biodiversity Management Committees |
Programmes: Project Tiger (1973) and Project Elephant (1992), the Compensatory Afforestation Fund mechanism, Joint Forest Planning and Management through Village Forest Committees, and the state's own afforestation and Krishi Aranya (farm-forestry seedling) schemes.
Human-Wildlife Conflict
Around Bandipur, Nagarahole, BRT, Kali and the Malnad estates, conflict is a routine administrative reality: elephant crop raiding, tiger and leopard livestock depredation, wild boar damage and occasional human deaths. The management toolkit is elephant-proof trenches and barriers, rail-barricade fencing, rapid-response teams, relocation, and ex-gratia compensation for crop, livestock, property and human loss.
For a Village Administrative Officer this is where conservation becomes paperwork with consequences. Compensation for crop damage requires a joint field inspection and a report identifying the survey number, the crop, the extent damaged and the claimant's title — which is drawn from the RTC. An inflated or careless report defrauds the fund; a delayed one pushes an affected household toward hostility to conservation itself.
Community Institutions That Actually Work
- Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 are constituted at Panchayat level and maintain the People's Biodiversity Register, documenting local species, varieties and knowledge, and are consulted on access to biological resources.
- Village Forest Committees under Joint Forest Planning and Management share protection duties and usufruct with the Forest Department.
- Sacred groves — the devarakadu of Kodagu and similar groves elsewhere — are community-protected forest patches that have conserved old-growth vegetation without any statutory notification, and they are a favourite example of traditional conservation.
- Gram Sabha powers under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 make the village assembly the initiating authority for individual and community forest rights.
Exam Angle
Prioritise in this order: why the Ghats are a hotspot and the 2012 World Heritage inscription; the Gadgil versus Kasturirangan comparison with the 37% figure; the five tiger reserves; and the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve as India's first. Then keep two endemic species and two sanctuary-to-district pairs ready. The trap to avoid is treating the two Ghats reports as identical — the whole point of the question is that Gadgil was broader and Kasturirangan narrower.
How did the Kasturirangan Committee report of 2013 differ from the Gadgil Committee report of 2011 on the Western Ghats?
Biodiversity Management Committees under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 are constituted at which level, and what key document do they maintain?
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, whose core includes Bandipur and Nagarahole, is significant because it was: