Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel

The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), also known as the Gadgil Commission after its chairman Madhav Gadgil, was an environmental research commission appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests of India. The commission submitted the report to the Government of India on 31 August 2011. The Expert Panel approached the project through a set of tasks, such as:

1. Compilation of readily available information about Western Ghats
2. Development of Geo-spatial database based on environmental sensitivity (Note: The geospatial datasets restored by OSGEO, contain critical GIS datasets from the WGEEP panel, including boundaries of critical wildlife corridors in the western ghats, biodiversity information, geo regions etc. The ESZ information was missing in the GIS datasets provided by OSGEO. Paani.Earth, a citizen led initiative for conservation of rivers has spatially mapped the ESZ taluks information provided in the WGEEP Report^. While there may be errors, our goal is to make this information more accessible) and
3. Consultation with Government bodies and Civil society groups.

Certain sections of people in Kerala, strongly protested the implementation of the report since most of the farmers obtained their livelihood from the hilly regions in Wayanad. During the 20th century, a very large number of people had migrated from southern Kerala and acquired forest land in Wayanad and other areas. The Gadgil Commission report was criticised for being excessively environment-friendly and not in tune with the ground realities.