Environment Minister flays unscrupulous elements for taking cover behind farmers to rape forests

By Ifham Nizam

Unscrupulous elements had started destroying forests by misusing the government’s instructions to allow innocent farmers to cultivate their lands and there were some politicians and venal state officials operating hand in glove with racketeers, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said yesterday.

Amaraweera said that the government had not allowed anyone to cut down forests and destroy the environment.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had already ordered security forces to arrest those who were destroying forests and the environment, Amaraweera said.

Amaraweera said that a comprehensive programme to protect the environment had been initiated as per the instructions of the President.

“Environmental degradation has become one of the most talked about topics in the mainstream media and on social media today. The Ministry of Environment is accused of not taking appropriate action regarding such destruction. But this subject is divided into several ministries – Environment, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation.”

Minister Amaraweera said that part of the forest areas under threat also belonged to the Ministry of Mahaweli Development. However, the Environment Ministry would do everything it could to protect the environment, he said, requesting the public to bring to his notice incidents of deforestation or illegal exploitation of natural resources.

“Reforestation is not an easy task. A forest is an ecosystem. Creating such an ecosystem artificially is next to impossible. During tree planting however, the number of trees increases,” he said, adding that the government had adopted that method for want of a better alternative.

The Environment Ministry has implemented two special programmes to increase the number of trees here. One is the “Husma Dena Thuru” programme. Under this it is planned to plant two million trees in the next four years.

The Minister said on account of the Sinhala and Hindu New Year, his Ministry would launch a tree planting programme on April 16 at the auspicious time of 6.40 am. “Our target is to plant nearly three million plants”, he said.