Senior environmental scientist Madhav Gadgil has died at his residence in Pune, marking the passing of one of the most influential figures in the evolution of India’s environmental thought and policy.
Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil was a pioneering ecologist, academic, writer and public intellectual, widely regarded as a foundational voice in Indian environmentalism. He was the founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, which emerged as one of the country’s leading hubs for ecological research. Over several decades, Gadgil combined rigorous scientific work with a strong advocacy for decentralised, community-led environmental governance.
Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil was an Indian ecologist, academic, writer, columnist and the founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences a research forum under the aegis of the Indian Institute of Science.He is a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of 2010, popularly known as the Gadgil Commission.
Gadgil was a recipient of the Volvo Environment Prize and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 1981 and followed it up with the third highest award of the Padma Bhushan in 2006. He received the Champions of the Earth in 2024
Gadgil was born on 24 May 1942 in Pune, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. His parents were Pramila and Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil, a Cambridge scholar , economist, former director of the Gokhale Institute and the author of the Gadgil formula. He graduated in biology from Fergusson College of the University of Pune in 1963, and secured a master’s degree in zoology from the Mumbai University in 1965
