The tenure of the working group, headed by eminent space scientist and Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan, has now been asked to submit its report by February 16, 2013, the ministry said.
The nine-member group, constituted on August 1, this year, has been asked to examine the Madhav Gadgil committee report released recently "in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion keeping in view the comments received from the concerned state governments, central ministries, stakeholders".
The panel has also been authorised to examine "other related important aspects such as preservation of precious biodiversity, needs and aspirations of the local and indigenous people, sustainable development and environmental integrity of the region, climate change and constitutional implications of centre-state relations."
Prof C R Babu (Delhi University), J M Mauskar (Ex-Special Secretary, MoEF), Prof Kanchan Chopra (Ex-Director, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi), Jagadish Kishwan (Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife), Darshan Shankar (Chairman, Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Bangalore), Sunita Narain (Director, Centre for Science and Environment, P S Roy (Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun and Ajay Tyagi (Joint Secretary, MoEF) are the members of the committee.
Indrani Chandrasekhran, (Advisor, Environment and Forests, Planning Commission) is the special invitee.
The Kasturirangan-headed panel is also mandated to study the implications of Centre-State relations with respect to conservation and sustainable development of Western Ghats.
The Gadgil panel report had termed Western Ghats as extremely ecologically sensitive region and favoured restricted mining and other development activities in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which was opposed by several state governments.
