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. 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. 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. National and international recognition Over the course of his career, Madhav Gadgil received numerous honours for his contributions to environmental science and policy.

Source: Mint January 08, 2026 11:56 UTC