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Message: <blockquote data-quote="monson" data-source="post: 21112580" data-attributes="member: 30005">No tree in the Vilaththikulam forest reserve felled after 2015- Conservator General of Forests, Anura SathurusingheSunday, 08 January 2017The Conservator General of Forests of the Forest Department,Anura Sathurusinghe explaining the background told the Sunday Observer, there has not been any clearance of jungle in the Mannar district, after 2015.ResettlementHe said, the media is highlighting the construction activities taking place in the forest lands released for resettlement purposes during the previous government, and what the media is highlighting now is about lands released from the Vilathtikulam forest reserve for resettlement purposes in 2013.“We admit that in 2013 the Forest Department was compelled to release forest land in the Mannar district, because it was ordered by the then Presidential Task Force for Resettlement, Development and Security in the North, in order to speed up resettlement of displaced civilians from the North”, he added.He said, after the end of the war in 2009, the Forest Department was not operational in the North and some of the forests in the North were under threat of depleting, as Security Forces, on the directive of the then government cleared some of the forests for resettlement purposes.At the time the Forest Officers started their operations in the North in 2011, some forest lands from different parts of the Mannar district had already been cleared for resettlement. To end this, the Forest Department issued a gazette notification declaring some forests as forest reserves, mentioning only GPS references of those forests, without any surveying.Accordingly, the Forest Department declared eight forests in the Mannar district as forest reserves in 2012, increasing the number of forest reserves in the district from three to eight.Vilaththikulam forest consisting of 2,108 hectares of forest lands, under gazette No 1759/02 issued on May 2, 2012 was declared as a forest reserve from June 10, 2012 .The controversial issue of deforestation of the Wilpattu National Park was highlighted during this period as some of the forest lands had to be released for resettlement purposes.The Conservator General of Forests, Sathurusinghe admits that the mechanism and the procedure they had to follow when releasing those lands was not the correct legal procedure. “But of course, we have done whatever we could, to protect the forest and also to release some forest lands for resettlement purposes because it was compelled by the Presidential Task Force ”, he said.As the then government insisted that the forest land be released for resettlement purposes, and that it should be done speedily, the Forest Department had suggested to appoint a committee consisting of District Secretaries, Divisional Secretaries, representatives of the Presidential Task Force and representatives of the Forest Department to decide on the matter.Following this decision then Forest Conservator General, K.P. Ariyadasa in a letter dated February 14, 2013, released 2,388 acres; thus, 1,080 from the Mannar district, 983 from Mullaitivu district and 325 acres from the Vavuniya district were released for resettlement purposes.It included nearly 700 acres of land in Pichcheivanniyakulam from the Vilaththikulam forest reserve located 12 kms north of the northern boundary of the Wilpattu National Park.However, the latest issue regarding the felling of trees and deforestation is centred around forest lands which have been released in Pichcheivanniyakulam area in the Vilaththikulam forest reserve, in 2013.According to the Forest Conservator General, the forest lands were released in 2013 to the District Secretary, Mannar ,without removing the trees in the forest lands, though it was the procedure that had to be followed when releasing forest land for resettlement purposes.- <a href="http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2017/01/08/features/no-tree-vilaththikulam-forest-reserve-felled-after-2015-conservator-general" target="_blank">http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2017/01/08/features/no-tree-vilaththikulam-forest-reserve-felled-after-2015-conservator-general</a></blockquote>

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