India, Jan. 26 -- The Supreme Court said that the criteria to identify private forests cannot be uniform across the country.

The Court gave the ruling in a recent judgement, while dismissing a petition challenging the criteria adopted in this regard by the Goa government.

The Court upheld the state criteria which pegged private forest as lands with 40% tree canopy and 5 hectare land and said, "The existing criteria for identification of private forests in the State of Goa are adequate and valid, hence, they require no alteration."

Dismissing the petition by NGO Goa Foundation to reduce the criteria to 10% canopy density and 1 hectare land, a three-judge bench of the top court headed by justice Bhushan R Gavai said that allowing such a ...