India: Govt asks court to disband forest panel

The government has asked the Supreme Court to disband a decade-old forest protection panel and leave forest management to the executive branch rather than judges, a move that has upset many environmentalists. The Supreme Court set up a committee in 1996 to monitor use of forest land and report to the justices on the environmental impact of development projects. The court also banned felling forests without permission from the judges, meaning that companies wanting to develop industrial and commercial projects in forested land needed permission from the Supreme Court.