The definitive legacy of ecologist Madhav Gadgil is the codification of the eternal values of India’s Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot and water tower for the entire peninsula. Prof. Gadgil, who passed away at 83, was an extraordinary scientist who refused to be intimidated by bureaucratic obstructionism in the working of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) that he headed. The committee’s work foregrounded the principle of development and conservation by inclusion, and its recommendations were based on the conviction that local communities and their elected institutions had the highest stakes in the land. Such a philosophy provoked a major backlash against the WGEEP, with non-cooperation extending to even official agencies, such........

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