Senior environmental scientist Dr. Madhav Gadgil (aged 82), who strongly advocated environmental conservation through public participation, passed away late Wednesday night at a private hospital in Pune after a brief illness. He is survived by his son, daughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, and grandchildren. His last rites were performed with full state honors at Vaikunth Crematorium.
Dr. Gadgil held senior responsibilities in several councils, committees, and research institutions involved in framing environmental and wildlife policies of the Government of India. He served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Science and Technology Advisory Council for four years. Under his chairmanship, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel carried out, for the first time, comprehensive documentation of the natural resources of the Western Ghats. Dr. Madhav Gadgil was the son of renowned economist, educationist, and former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr. Dhananjayrao Gadgil.
Madhav Gadgil was born in Pune and completed his schooling there. His father was a life member of the Bombay Natural History Society, and eminent ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali was a close family friend. While accompanying his father and Salim Ali on field visits, Gadgil developed a deep interest in biodiversity, the environment, and biology. He completed his undergraduate studies at Fergusson College, Pune, with zoology, botany, and chemistry as subjects.
After earning a postgraduate degree in marine biology from the Institute of Science, Mumbai, he went to Harvard University in the United States for his Ph.D. He was the first student at Harvard to submit a doctoral thesis in biology based on mathematical modeling. Under the guidance of William Bossert, he earned a Ph.D. in biology for his research on fish behavior. Subsequently, he served for several years as a professor of biology at Harvard University and of human biology at Stanford University. He also delivered lectures at the University of California, Berkeley.
Upon returning to India, Dr. Gadgil worked as a scientific officer at the Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science (now the Agharkar Research Institute) in Pune. From 1973 to 2004, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, was the center of his professional work. He served there successively as assistant professor, associate professor, professor, and eventually founded the Centre for Ecological Sciences, where he was its chairperson.
Dr. Gadgil strongly articulated the philosophy that human beings are an integral ecological component of biodiversity and cannot be excluded from environmental systems.
He was a member of the committee formed to establish an independent Ministry of Environment in the central government and played a key role in drafting its framework, which led to its formation. He prepared the project report for declaring the Nilgiri Hills as a protected area, the first such initiative in India. Between 1986 and 1990, he served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Science and Technology Advisory Council. He also worked as Vice-Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Biodiversity Council.
Dr. Gadgil was one of the five eminent members of the special task force constituted on the Prime Minister’s initiative for the protection and conservation of tigers. He authored more than two hundred and twenty-five research papers for scholars in the fields of biology, ecology, and evolutionary science. He also wrote six books in English. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, he received numerous national and international awards and honors. Recently, Southern American University conferred upon him the Tyler Prize for his contributions to environmental science.
— Kedar Kulkarni
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