PANJIM, Feb. 10 -- A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Friday issued notice to the Goa government on an appeal filed by the Goa Foundation against the NGT judgment dated September 12, 2023 which had upheld the reports of the Goa government's Forest Review Committee and its methodology.

It may be recalled that the Thomas and Araujo Forest Expert Committees had submitted their reports in December 2018, declaring 8.5 square km of Goa as forest (finally), and more than 20 square km as forest (provisional). In 2020, the State government appointed a Review Committee to examine the reports.

The petitioners had alleged before the NGT that a huge number of survey numbers identified as ...