Who was Madhav Gadgil? Environmental scientist who fought to save Western Ghats passes away in Pune
Madhav Gadgil (1942–2026) was a pioneering Indian ecologist, academic, and environmental activist who is widely regarded as the ‘father of modern Indian ecology.’ He passed away recently on January 7, 2026
Senior environmental scientist Madhav Gadgil has died at his residence in Pune, bringing to a close the life of a scholar who profoundly shaped India’s environmental thinking, policy framework and conservation ethics over more than five decades.
Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil was widely regarded as one of the architects of modern Indian environmentalism. An ecologist, academic, writer and public intellectual, he consistently argued that environmental protection must be rooted in both scientific rigour and social justice, with local communities playing a central role in managing natural resources.
A pioneer of Indian ecological science
Madhav Gadgil was the founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, established in 1983. Under his leadership, the centre evolved into one of India’s foremost institutions for research in ecology, conservation biology and environmental policy.
His academic work spanned human ecology, biodiversity conservation and the historical relationship between Indian society and its natural environment. Unlike conservation approaches that treated human presence as inherently destructive, Gadgil’s scholarship emphasised coexistence, traditional knowledge systems and long-term sustainability.
The Gadgil Committee and the Western Ghats debate
Madhav Gadgil was best known nationally for chairing the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2010. The panel’s 2011 report — widely known as the “Gadgil Report” — identified the entire Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot, as an Ecologically Sensitive Area.
The report recommended stringent controls on mining, quarrying, large dams and polluting industries to protect the fragile mountain ecosystem. While praised by scientists and environmentalists for its depth and precautionary approach, it provoked strong opposition from several state governments and development lobbies, who argued it would impede economic growth.
Although the report was later set aside in favour of the more diluted Kasturirangan Committee recommendations, Gadgil’s findings have remained a reference point in debates following ecological disasters, including landslides and floods in Kerala and Maharashtra.
Champion of community-led conservation
Central to Madhav Gadgil’s philosophy was a “bottom-up” model of environmental governance. He believed that conservation efforts would succeed only if local communities were empowered to manage and protect their ecosystems.
He was a key architect of India’s Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which established a legal framework for biodiversity conservation and equitable benefit-sharing. Gadgil also pioneered the concept of People’s Biodiversity Registers, enabling local self-governing bodies such as gram panchayats to document and safeguard traditional ecological knowledge and biological resources.
His work on sacred groves — forest patches preserved through religious and cultural traditions — was among the earliest scientific studies to recognise their ecological significance, well before the concept gained wider international attention.
National and international recognition
Over the course of his career, Madhav Gadgil received numerous honours for his contributions to environmental science and policy. These included the Padma Shri in 1981 and the Padma Bhushan in 2006, two of India’s highest civilian awards. Internationally, he was recognised with the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2015 and the Volvo Environment Prize.
In 2024, he received the Champions of the Earth lifetime achievement award, a recognition that underscored his enduring influence on global environmental thought.
Gadgil was also a prolific writer. His books, including This Fissured Land (co-authored with Ramachandra Guha), Ecology and Equity, and his autobiography A Walk Up the Hill, remain widely read for their synthesis of ecology, history and social analysis.