India, Sept. 20 -- A file on the 2015 plan to establish a tiger reserve in Goa has gone missing, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), set up by the Supreme Court, was informed at its first hearing, people familiar with the matter said.

At its September 16 hearing in Delhi, the committee heard the Goa government, which has challenged in the Supreme Court the Bombay high court's order directing them to declare a tiger reserve in Goa's Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary and surrounding areas, and the original petitioner, the Goa Foundation, an advocacy group.

At the hearing, Goa Foundation told the committee that a tiger reserve proposal prepared by the forest department was finalised in 2018. But the state government did not notify the said rese...