♦ Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil passed away in Pune on 8 January 2026. He was 82. In 2010, the Union government appointed Gadgil as the head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), later known as the Gadgil Commission. He was born in 1943 in Pune. 

♦ In 2024, the United Nations presented Gadgil with the annual Champions of the Earth award, the UN's highest environmental honour, for his seminal work on the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot. He is one of six laureates in the 2024 cohort. 

♦ One of Dr Gadgil’s most significant achievements was establishing India’s first biosphere reserve, the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in 1986. 

♦ He was also a member of the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India from 1986 to 1990. Additionally, Gadgil was a member of the national advisory council from 2010 to 2012 and chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel from 2010 to 2011. Gadgil was one of the key architects of India’s Biological Diversity Act and contributed to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act.

♦ He received the Padma Bhushan in 2006.