Abstract:
This paper highlights certain issues - analytical and empirical-associated with the
classification by the Kasturirangan Committee of the environmentally sensitive
areas in the Western Ghats region and their recommendations for environmental
protection of the same. By drawing from Amartya Sen’s critique of the Report by
Brundtland Commission – Our Common Future - the paper makes the case for a
pro-freedom and choice based approach to environmental sustainability and argues
that the approach of the Ministry of Environment and Forests has the potential of
straining the centre-state relations. Finally the paper draws the broad contours of a
plausible way forward.
