India, March 30 -- The Bombay High Court has quashed a Maharashtra government notification declaring over 56 hectares of land in Raigad district as "private forest", observing that authorities failed to properly assess evidence indicating the land had been afforested through human effort.

The case relates to an agricultural land in Raigad, which the state proposed to classify as "private forest" in October 1997. A group of agriculturists challenged the move, claiming long-standing cultivation and arguing that its agricultural character excluded it from the ambit of the Maharashtra Private Forest (Acquisition) Act, 1975. They stated they have been cultivating the property for several decades and that the land is agricultural in nature.

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