Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil dies at 83

Noted ecologist Madhav Gadgil, known for his work on the conservation of Western Ghats, has passed away in Pune after a brief illness, family sources said on Thursday. He was 83. Gadgil breathed his last late Wednesday night at a hospital in Pune, the sources said. He played a pioneering role in shaping India's ecological research and conservation policy.

Gadgil was the founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), popularly known as the Gadgil Commission. In 2024, the United Nations presented Gadgil with the annual Champions of the Earth award, the UN's highest environmental honour, for his seminal work on the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot.

He had chaired the government-constituted Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel to study the impact of population pressure, climate change, and development activities on the ecologically fragile region in India. In 2010, Gadgil was appointed chairman of the panel, which submitted a landmark report recommending that a significant portion of the Western Ghats be designated as ecologically sensitive. While the report triggered intense debate, it is widely regarded as a milestone in India's environmental discourse.