Cabinet decision earlier this year, the trigger

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Organised groups had torched over 25,000 acres of forests around the country this year in a bid to encroach forest land, environmentalists claim.About 50 acres of the Tabbowa Forest Reserve were destroyed by a fire on Wednesday.

Such groups had been burning forests during the dry season. Chamikara said. “However, the frequency of such incidents has increased this year, Sajeewa Chamikara of the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) said.

“Organised groups are setting fire to forests in many areas in the dry zone and the wet zone has also not been spared. These incidents have increased due to wrong policy decisions taken by the government. At the beginning of this year, Minister of Wildlife Pavithra Wanniarachchi received Cabinet approval for releasing forest land to people in 11 districts,” he said.

The government wanted to prepare the ground for handing over those lands to various companies, Chamikara said.

A spike in forest fires had come about following that Cabinet decision, Chamikara said.About 145 serious incidents of setting fire to forests had been reported since February, he said, adding that over 25,000 acres of forest land had been destroyed.