The panel of experts on the Western Ghats (also known as Sahyadri range), constituted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), will give its final report by June 30.
Madhav Gadgil, who heads the panel, told PTI today that the draft would be ready soon, and the final report compiling all the suggestions would be out by June 30.
Mr. Gadgil said that they had earlier aimed to finish writing the draft by June 5, which they could not do as they were expecting more inputs from panel members.
The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) was formed in March 2010. Its job is to give recommendations for the preservation of this area, considered as one of the most important biodiversity spots in the world.
Sources said that the panel has considered the grievance that provisions of Forest conservation Act and Forest Rights Act have not been applied fully in the Western Ghats.
In the earlier meetings, the panel had envisaged adoption of a graduated approach.
“The ecologically sensitive areas would be graded from highly sensitive to less sensitive, rather than adopting `go and no-go approach’,” sources said.
Selected areas would be notified as Ecologically Sensitive Areas. There would be different zones of ecologically sensitivity, which would range from zone of highest sensitivity to zone of low sensitivity - ESZ1, ESZ2 and ESZ3.
