India, Feb. 27 -- In a setback to the state forest department, the Bombay High Court has upheld a 2017 order of the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal (MRT) which had refused to declare over 193 acres of land in Thane's Manpada a private forest.

Bringing a 50-year-old land dispute to a close, a division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Ashwin Bhobe on February 20 said that while the forest department did not object to the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) acquiring about 104 acres of the disputed land for public purposes, it raised objections to the grant of compensation - Development Rights Certificate (DRC) or Transferable Development Rights (TDR) - to the land owner, despite a high court direction to the contrary.

"We are in agreement ...