‘Gadgil Committee Report’ and ‘Kasturirangan Committee Report’, sometimes seen in the news, are related to

Answer: (d) protection of Western Ghats

Madhav Gadgil’s Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (2011) and K. Kasturirangan’s High-Level Working Group (2013) both drew lines around what to protect in the Western Ghats.

The idea

Both reports answer one question: how much of the Western Ghats should be closed to mining, quarrying and polluting industry? Gadgil said almost all of it, in three grades of sensitivity, with gram sabhas deciding. The States objected, so a second committee was asked to find a middle path.

Gadgil panel, 2011: whole Western Ghats ecologically sensitive, three zones → States object: it will stop development → Kasturirangan group, 2013: about 37% as Ecologically Sensitive Area → Centre issues draft notifications → States still disagree; no final notification

Why the others are wrong

(a) Nothing to do with the Constitution.

(b) The Ganga Action Plan (1985) had its own bodies, not these two.

(c) River linking was studied by other groups, such as the 2002 task force under Suresh Prabhu.

The trap

Both men are eminent scientists (Gadgil is an ecologist; Kasturirangan was ISRO chief), so “constitutional reforms” or “river linking” can sound plausible. Together, the pair means the Western Ghats.

Also know

Kasturirangan also chaired the committee that drafted the National Education Policy 2020, which is another place his name appears. A serial property of 39 sites in the Western Ghats became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.