When the National Committee for Protection of Natural Resources (NCPNR) filed an interloutory application in the Supreme Court on Feb 10,1997, alleging wanton destruction of forest and exploitation of tribals in Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh by a nexus of politicians, officials and timber merchants, nothing concrete was really expected to happen. In particular, it was not anticipated that the Dehra Dun based Forest Survey of India would ask for an explaination from the State Government on how, the surveys of 1995 and 1997 showed that Madhya Pradesh had lost 4,995 sq km of forests, which was 60 per cent of the total loss of forest cover in the entire country in the two year period.