Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil passes away at 82

Famous ecologist Madhav Gadgil passed away late at night on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, at his home in Pune, following a short illness, his son Siddhartha Gadgil said. Hindu On Thursday, January 8, 2026. He was 82 years old.

The funeral will be held at Vaikuntha crematorium in Pune at 4 pm today.

He was known for his work on the ecological importance of the Western ghats. In 2024, the United Nations was awarded the annual Champions of the Earth award, the UN’s highest environmental honour, for its seminal work in the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot.

Its report included several recommendations to impose strict restrictions on areas classified as highly sensitive. Recommendations were made, such as not building new roads or buildings, not doing development on steep slopes, and banning rock quarries.

during his interview with Hindu He had expressed concern over the disasters in the western ghats last year and added that all the recommendations in the report were very necessary to prevent disasters. “What we witnessed was a model of development imposed on people: Mining activities and polluting industries were forced upon communities without their consent. At the same time, even conservation efforts were imposed in a top-down, authoritarian manner by a forest department that often acted in a cruel and anti-human way,” he said.

Former Environment Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, in a post on “Educated at the best universities of modern science, he was also an advocate of traditional knowledge systems, especially the conservation of biodiversity,” the post said.

Mr. Ramesh said Madhav Gadgil’s life was dedicated to science in the noblest sense of the word and he will remain an iconic and inspirational figure.