Dehradun, Dec. 28 -- The principal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on December 24 issued notices to the state government and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) over allegations of a foreign liquor retail outlet operating on land demarcated as a reserved forest in Tehri Garhwal district's Muni ki Reti. The bench, led by NGT chairperson justice Prakash Srivastava, issued the notices in a response to a petition filed by Tehri Garhwal resident Vikash Chandra Rayal. According to the petition, the owners of the outlet obtained a license to set up shop in the Dhalwala area, but were instead operating within land that fell under the Shivpuri range of the Narendra Nagar forest division, in direct violation of environmental norms. The petition alleged further that the outlet was encroaching upon 114 square metres of land beyond the allotted area of 100 square metres, in contravention of Section 2 of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. It referred to an inspection report by the forest department which it said confirmed the reserved status of the land in question. According to the cited report, which cites a Survey of India map, the stretch of land falling on the right side of the road from the national highway bridge in Kharasrot up to the Vatraha PWD tri-junction, falls within reserved forest land. This includes the liquor shop and the surrounding inhabited area. In addition to the report, the petition also cites information obtained from MoEFF&CC on November 23 under the Right to Information Act as well as satellite imagery to support the reserved land claim. Despite a resolution passed on October 30 by the Nagar Palika Parishad, Muni ki Reti, to close the liquor shop, the Tehri district administration failed to take any action, says the petition. Taking note of the allegations, the bench directed the issuance of notice to all respondents. It also constituted a committee comprising representatives of the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), the district magistrate of Tehri Garhwal and the commissioner of the excise department to verify the ground situation. The district magistrate, Nitika Khandelwal, was designated nodal officer of the committee. The committee was directed to conduct a site inspection to ascertain whether the liquor shop was operating by encroaching upon forest land and to submit a status and action report to the tribunal at least one week before the next date of hearing, which is March 18, 2026. The shop in question, which obtained its license in 2018, was in the news since October 25 when a man's murder by an intoxicated friend sparked protests demanding its closure in Muni ki Reti, prompting MoEF&CC to write to the state government to verify alleged violations of the Forest Conservation Act.1980 and the Environment Protection Act, 1966. The situation led to a tug-of-war between the forest and revenue departments over the land's legal status and jurisdiction....