The Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) is in the Western Ghats, an ecological hotspot, and comprises of the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani and 60 villages between and around them, covering an area of approx. 236 sq. km. While Mahabaleshwar is primarily a tourist destination, Panchgani is an education centre with over 30 schools, most of them residential, with thousands of students.

A draft Master Plan has been published for the ESZ, which will be in effect till 2022. All development contemplated in the Master Plan is at the cost of the Green Zone. The threat to the Green Zone (comprising mainly of ecologically sensitive non-legally designated forests, hill slopes including steep hill slopes, plateaus including rocky plateaus, tablelands and agricultural lands) is primarily from residential development, tourism development and a network of roads.

The project is to lobby with the Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani Regional Planning Board, the Director of Town Planning, State of Maharashtra, and the Government of Maharashtra, in that order (as per the provisions of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966), primarily for:

a) deletion of various provisions in the Master Plan of the ESZ that are detrimental to the preservation and conservation of the ESZ,

b) are contrary to the provisions of the ESZ notification,

c) for the inclusion of identified non-legally designated forests as forest areas (No development of such forests is permissible as it attracts the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980,as per orders of the Supreme Court of India. The identification, survey and demarcation of such forests in the ESZ was ordered by the Bombay High Court in our Public Interest Litigation.)