More than a year after Javadekar asked the states to submit reports following a "ground-truthing" exercise to assess the recommendations made by the K Kasturirangan committee to declare about 37% of the areas in the Western Ghats as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), Maharashtra is yet to submit the report.

Sources in the state committee that is carrying out the exercise said that the report is in the final stages of drafting with only some verification of data pending. Javadekar has extended the deadline for the submission of the report several times.

According to a press release issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the meeting will review the progress of physical demarcation of the ESA and will discuss the further course of action for the protection and conservation of the Western Ghats.

"Based on the requests received from some of the state governments of the region, the ministry had decided to give an opportunity to state governments of Western Ghats region to undertake the demarcation of Ecologically Sensitive Area within their jurisdiction by physical verification and submit their proposals to the Ministry by June 30," the release stated.

Kerala has already undertaken such an exercise and submitted its report, it added.

The previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had on March 10, 2014 issued a notification declaring the ESA based on the recommendations of the Kasturirangan committee. The move had been hotly protested by environmentalists who believed the recommendations to be a dilution of those made by the panel headed by renowned environmentalist Madhav Gadgil.