India, Dec. 1 -- Following the Supreme Court's (SC's) November 8 judgment allowing individual owners to retain possession of private forest lands in Maharashtra, the state forest department is preparing to file a review petition to regain ownership of thousands of hectares of such land. "We are examining all documents and old notices issued decades ago. The review petition is being drafted and will be filed in December," said Mahadev Mohite, deputy conservator of forests.

The issue has become especially important for the forest department as most of these lands fall in the western ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot. Forest officials and wildlife experts fear that the SC ruling may cause large-scale damage to this fragile ecosystem.

On...