Last Updated: 12.06.24

The Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) notification of January 2001 stipulated that a High-Level Monitoring Committee (HLMC) be constituted to oversee adherence to the provisions of the notification. Nine months later, the Environment Ministry had set up the HLMC, which included BEAG members.

The HLMC became a central authority coordinating the activities of several government departments — Revenue, Forest, Public works, Police — and the municipalities of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, which had often worked without coordination and sometimes at cross purposes.

HLMC  meeting chaired by Dr Ankur Patwadhan in progress Credit: BEAG Archive

It is also now  a citizens’ forum where residents environmental complaints can be promptly dealt with.

Longer-term issues taken up by the HLMC included the finalization of Zonal Master Plan, and the initiation of plans for traffic management, solid waste disposal, and plastics disposal, as well as the survey of the bio-diversity in the MPESZ.