India, March 6 -- The western bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued an order on March 3 directing the Pune district collector to submit a report on the current status of encroachment on reserve forest land allocated by the revenue department in the district.

The tribunal also asked the official to provide information about the ongoing litigation in various courts regarding the forest land. The next hearing for this case is set for April 25.

The principal bench of the NGT in September 2024 took suo moto action and registered a case based on a report titled 'Forest department struggling to regain 14,000 hectares of land in Pune' published in Hindustan Times on August 28.

In response to the direction by the principal bench, th...