Overview
- He died late Wednesday in Pune after a brief illness, his son Siddhartha Gadgil said, confirming he was 83.
- As chair of the 2010–11 Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, he urged designating about 75% of the range as ecologically sensitive and warned against mining, large dams and unregulated infrastructure.
- Governments later leaned on a scaled‑down Kasturirangan map, and the Centre has still not fully notified eco‑sensitive areas across the Ghats 15 years after his panel reported.
- He founded the Centre for Ecological Sciences at IISc and helped shape India’s Biological Diversity Act and Forest Rights Act, advancing People’s Biodiversity Registers and community‑led conservation.
- He received UNEP’s 2024 Champions of the Earth honor along with the Tyler and Volvo environment prizes and the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, with tributes from Jairam Ramesh and Ramachandra Guha.