Last Updated: 23.07.24

Aware of the environmental importance of preserving Matheran and its forests, BEAG had been persistently urging the Government of India for years to create a draft notification for Matheran to be declared an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ).

But getting the Government of India to issue the ESZ notification for Matheran and its surrounding areas was not an easy task. It was achieved in the teeth of a great deal of opposition—and misinformation—from local politicians, brick manufacturers, builders, quarry owners and others. Fierce arguments took place about the stipulations to be imposed.

BEAG had in fact worked laboriously to create a draft ESZ notification for Matheran and had submitted the document to the Government of India for Matheran as far back as 1998. From 1999, BEAG persistently urged the Government of Maharashtra to give its approval to the proposal for the ESZ declaration.

However, two years passed without response from the Government of Maharashtra, and BEAG finally decided to approach the Supreme Court.

In 2001, BEAG’s litigation in the Supreme Court resulted in the Supreme Court passing an order directing the Government of India to declare Matheran an ESZ to save it from environmental destruction.

Since it is the state government’s responsibility to demarcate areas in response to a judicial directive, the Government of Maharashtra immediately set up a committee to define the boundary of the ESZ and submitted it to the Government of India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests. (The ministry was renamed  Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in 2014.)

In February 2002, the Ministry of Environment and Forests published draft of the Matheran ESZ notification, inviting public comment and on February 4, 2003, the Ministry officially declared Matheran and its surrounding areas, including the hills of Prabul, Peb, and Malangad, an Eco-Sensitive Zone.

However, there was a major difference in the size of the ESZ area between the draft notification published by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2002 and the final notification published by it in 2003.

 In the preliminary Matheran ESZ notification, 498 square kilometres had been notified as the ESZ. However, a committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, chaired by Professor Mohan Ram, used a narrow definition of what constitutes ecological sensitivity and reduced the ESZ in the final notification to 251 square kilometres.

BEAG filed an interlocutory application in 2003 (IA 659 under CWP 202 / 1995, T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad Versus Union of India) with the Supreme Court to obtain an explanation from the Ministry for the reduction in the ESZ area, and, in its order of August 25, 2003 the Supreme Court asked the Ministry for an explanation.

The Ministry did not provide an explanation. Seventeen years later, on April 24, 2018,  the Supreme Court finally disposed of BEAG’s interlocutory application on Matheran with the observation that the proposal for declaring the area near Matheran as an eco-sensitive area had been issued in 2003 after all objections had been considered. 

Despite the reduction of the ESZ area, the entire town of Matheran and an area of more than 240 square kilometres around it, including the hills of Prabul, Peb and Malangad, had been included in the ESZ.

The final ESZ is 251.56 square kilometres in area, of which 200 metres is a buffer zone, 7.23 square kilometres is under the jurisdiction of Matheran Municipal Council, and the rest—the surrounding forests, villages, tribal areas, and agricultural areas—is under the jurisdiction of various administrative authorities.

The total population of the area in the Matheran ESZ is 125,000, as per Census 2011, nearly 27 per cent of it is tribal.

The major food crops produced in villages in the ESZ are rice, cereals, and vegetables. Horticulture is also widely practised.

All activities in the forests—both within the area managed by the Matheran Municipal Council and outside it—are governed by the provisions of the Indian Forest Act of 1927 and the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980. All activities in the protected areas are governed by the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972.