PUNE: Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil (83), passed away at 11 pm on January 7 at Prayag Hospital in Pune after a brief illness.Gadgil was not just a scientist but also a champion of community rights. He was honoured with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, not to mention the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 2024 Champions of the Earth Award, the UN’s highest environmental honour for protecting people and the planet through science and community engagement.He was probably best known for the Western Ghats report published in 2011, by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel – WGEEP, a committee he chaired, formed in 2010 by India’s Ministry of Environment to study the Western Ghats’ ecology. The report recommended that approximately 75% of the Western Ghats area be declared an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), which drew heavy opposition. The subsequent Kasturirangan report in 2013 reduced the area to 37% and identified only a portion of it as ESAs.Born in Pune, Maharashtra, on 24 May 1942, he was an alumnus of Fergusson College and went on to receive his PhD from Harvard University, USA. Afterwards, unlike others, he returned to India despite many offers from universities across the world. He initially worked at Agharkar Research Institute and then the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, for 30 years.He was also instrumental in the establishment of India’s first biosphere reserve, established in 1986, the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and was a key figure in shaping India’s Biological Diversity Act (BDA) of 2002.He was also always outspoken and gave way to people’s movements, as he believed people and community were at the heart of conservation and argued that development must never come at the cost of environmental destruction.The cremation will be held at 4 pm at Vaikunth crematorium on Thursday.
