News
Massive plunder of forest
More than 700 acres of state and private land in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts have been cleared illegally by a businessman and valuable trees including ebony felled, investigations by the Environment Ministry and the Forest Department have revealed. The probe came after complaints that a Kurunegala businessman who claimed to have a licence issued by the Road Development Authority (RDA) to collect unlimited quantitieses of soil for road development projects in the Northern and Eastern Provinces was felling trees.
“The Ministry has called for a report about the illicit felling. We will be submitting the report within the next two weeks,” Forest Conservation Department Director General Anura Sathurusinghe said. He said a team had been sent to collect evidence of the destruction. The Environment Ministry has also sent a team and recorded video evidence of the destruction and found that thousands of valuable trees including satin and palu had been cut down in addition to clearing the jungles.
“During the past two years, the trees have been cut and the timber removed in lorries carrying soil,” the officer said.
Investigations are underway to ascertain the involvement of forest officers and an Air Force officer who was based in a camp at Iranamadu earlier.
The RDA denied it had issued a licence to clear the forest areas to collect soil for road projects. The areas where the forests have been cleared are Kalwadukulam tank area, Akkarayankulam and Iranamadu.