Discuss the significance of the Western Ghats as an ecological entity and the administrative challenges in notifying Ecologically Sensitive Areas.

Older than the Himalaya, the Western Ghats is a UNESCO World Heritage serial property of 39 components and one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biodiversity [1]. Yet thirteen years after the Kasturirangan report, the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) notification remains a draft — the deficit is administrative, not scientific.

Ecological significance

• Monsoon regulator: its high montane forests shape the Indian monsoon pattern and moderate the regional tropical climate, making it one of the planet's best examples of a monsoon system [1].
• Endemism: exceptional biological diversity, including at least 325 globally threatened flora, fauna, bird, amphibian, reptile and fish species [1].
• Water tower: the 1,600-km chain feeds the peninsula's major west- and east-flowing rivers, underwriting drinking water, irrigation and hydropower downstream.
• Hazard buffer: forested slopes stabilise a fragile, high-rainfall terrain; quarrying and land-use change here have preceded repeated landslide disasters in the Ghats.

Administrative challenges in notifying ESAs

• Federal friction: ESAs are notified centrally under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 [3], while land, agriculture and mining administration sit with States — producing consent deadlock.
• Serial, lapsing drafts: the notification of 3 August 2024, covering over 56,800 sq km across six States, was the sixth draft [3][4]. A draft carries no legal force, so the recommended bans on mining, quarrying and thermal power [2] exist nowhere in law.
• Flawed demarcation: satellite-based delineation without village-level ground-truthing, and no formal pre-scoping public consultation, leave affected households unable to know their status [4].
• Political economy of protest: Karnataka's September 2026 Assembly debate saw demands to reject the report outright and constitute a fresh committee [6], reflecting livelihood anxiety.
• Enforcement deficit: CAG found large-scale illegal quarrying outside lease areas, weak monitoring and understaffed mineral squads in Kerala [5] — new zones mean little without compliance capacity.

Conservation and livelihood are reconcilable if the Centre replaces perpetual drafting with a final, ground-verified notification, settles claims through Forest Rights Act, 2006 gram sabhas, and strengthens monitoring — cooperative federalism serving Article 48A's mandate to protect forests and wildlife.