Not an easy feat for India

India, which has been struggling to get the Western Ghats inscribed in Unesco’s World Heritage List for the last six years, assumed a rather aggressive stance this year to ensure that the Ghats bags the tag at any cost.

After being derided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) yet again this year, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) fought back by outlining the importance of the inscription of the Ghats in the heritage list.

IUCN in its draft decision in May has recommended the “deferral” of the Ghats, like it had done the last year.

In its rejoinder to the World Heritage Committee dated June 11, MoEF wrote back stating that the recommendation was in “complete contrast” of the decision taken by WHC in the Paris convention last year.

It has argued that though IUCN has recommended the Ghats to be deferred, the WHC in its meet had chosen to ‘refer’ Ghats for the nomination this year.  It has also stated that India has submitted a detailed report in compliance with WHC’s 2011 decision with “state of the art spatial database in GIS domain” to Unesco well before the February 1, 2102 deadline.

The MoEF’s main task was, however, to convince the WHC that it could not incorporate recommendations made by Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) panel, in its dossier.

The panel headed by noted ecologist Prof Madhav Gadgil, was constituted by MoEF itself. Though the report was submitted in August 2011, the Ministry has not yet accepted it, putting itself in an awkward position.

Reiterating that the WGEEP panel has not made any recommendations to refine the scope and composition of the current serial nomination, MoEF said the report has been put up for public consultation.

IUCN had asked the MoEF to compile data and define ecologically sensitive areas; refine boundaries to ensure exclusion of developmental activities; implement an overarching management plan through the establishment of the ‘Western Ghats Natural Heritage Conservation Authority’.