By Sandun A.Jayasekera
The Sinharaja Forest Range (SFR) comprising 11,187 hectares will be soon expanded by another 2,488 hectares as a means of preventing state lands being encroached, deforested or used for commercial purposes, Environment Minister Anura Priyadharsahana Yapa said yesterday.
He said as such 12 blocks of land in the Ratnapura District and four blocks of land in the Matara District totalling a land area of 2,488 hectares and belonging to the Lands Reforms Commission (LRC) would be vested with the Forest Department for the purpose of expanding the SFR.
‘There is a delay in acquiring these lands and the payment of compensation. But cabinet approval has been granted recently to vest these lands in the forest department without payment of compensation,” the minister said.
The SFR with its rich biodiversity and a huge impact on Sri Lanka’s weather pattern was declared a Natural World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1988 and endorsed by an Act of Parliament.
The minister said in the recent past there had been a sharp increase in land encroachment, illegal gem mining, the felling of trees and sand mining and in addition requests were pouring in for permission to use state lands for commercial, agriculture and industrial purposes.
http://print.dailymirror.lk/news/news/54198.html
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