For over 16 years the Supreme Court has been hearing two major petitions concerning forests and wildlife. Writ petition 337/1995 filed by the Centre for Environmental Law (part of WWF) concerns protected areas (PAs) and writ petition 202/1995, is the omnibus forest petition widely known as the Godavarman case. The first landmark order in the second petition was delivered on December 12, 1996. In an unprecedented but hugely valuable effort, both the cases have been kept open under the writ of continuing mandamus.