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Conservator General of Forests refutes reports on SL forest cover

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The Conservator General of Forests Mr. K.M.A Bandara said that the media reports implying that Sri Lanka’s forest cover has decreased to 16% are false.

The President’s Media Division says that Mr. Bandara has said this in response to a query made over the media reports on the instructions of President’s Secretary Mr. Saman Ekanayake and that the Presidential Secretariat had focused its attention regarding these media reports.

The PMD statement issued in this regard further says :

The assessment of forest cover is carried out every five years and the census conducted in 2020 is scheduled to be completed in June this year. According to the census conducted in 2015, the natural forests of Sri Lanka stood at 29.15% (1,912,970 hectares) of the total land extent.

The Conservator General of Forests also said that although there has been some reduction in the amount of forests due to various development activities and other human activities in the country, there has definitely been no decrease in the amount of forests up to 16%  as stated in the media reports.

 According to media reports, if the forest area in Sri Lanka is 16% of the total land extent, then the existing forest area in the country should be 1,040,000 hectares. This means that 872,970 hectares of forests should have been destroyed during the seven years from 2015, which is 124,710 hectares per year and  341 hectares of forest destruction per day.

He also said that the method used to assess the forests should have been described in the presentation of data on forests. Basic points such as the definition of forests, the method of estimating forest size, and the estimation of forest size should have been mentioned in the report. However, there is no source from which the relevant data was obtained in the media reports suggesting that the forest cover had decreased.

The Conservator General further stated that if there is widespread forest destruction, as reported in the media, it should have been observed by the Department of Forest, the Department of Wildlife Conservation, the Sri Lanka Police, and the Sri Lanka Air Force, which monitors forests from the air. However, such extensive forest destruction has not been reported to any of these institutions. He also stated that the Forest Department is updating forest maps and that no such forest destruction was observed during those activities.

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Several showers expected today

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Several spells of showers will occur in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Nuwara-Eliya, Kandy, Galle and Matara districts today (July 03), the Department of Meteorology said.

Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in the Uva province and in Ampara and Batticaloa districts during the afternoon or night.

Meanwhile, fairly strong winds of about 30-40 kmph can be expected at times over Western slopes of the central hills and in Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Trincomalee and Hambantota districts.

The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.

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Kahawatte OIC transferred

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The Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Kahawatte Police has been transferred to the Jaffna Police Division to facilitate the investigation into the youth who was shot dead on June 30 in Kahawatte, Police said.

A 22-year-old youth died while another was critically injured in a shooting incident in the Yainna area of Kahawatte.

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List of families eligible for ‘Aswesuma’ Phase 2, released

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The list of eligible families selected for the second phase of the ‘Aswesuma’ welfare benefit allowance has been officially released.

The list has been displayed on the notice boards of all Divisional Secretariat offices and Grama Niladhari officers as well as in the offices of the relevant field officers in charge of the subject. It has also been published on the official website of the Welfare Benefits Board, (www.wbb.gov.lk).

Furthermore, applicants who believe there is an error or any changes in the information provided during the second stage of data collection, and whose names are not included in the list of eligible candidates, have the opportunity to submit an appeal.

Additionally, individuals who submitted initial applications for ‘Aswesuma’ Phase 2 but were not visited by a government field officer for housing data collection are also eligible to appeal.

Before filing an appeal, all applicants are advised to review the information recorded about their households in the IWMS database during the housing data collection process.

Appeals and objections can be submitted through the official website by accessing the Appeals and Objections section. For further assistance, applicants are also advised to visit their nearest ‘Vidatha’ Resource Centre when submitting appeals and objections online.

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