By Rathindra Kuruwita

The Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration had allowed the clearing of 53,000 acres of forest land, and the government henchmen were clearing five hectares a day, SJB MP Manusha Nanayakkara told The Island yesterday.

The President had been a vocal critic of deforestation before coming to power and had assured people that he would protect the environment, the MP said.

Nanayakkara said that since the election of the President, deforestation had increased to hitherto unseen levels and that now a Presidential Task Force had recommended the release of 53,000 acres of forest lands purportedly for development work. However, this will only benefit timber merchants and those who want to parcel out these lands and sell them to large companies. These groups pretend to be farmers when the President takes part in discussions with the Village (Gama Samaga Pilisandara) programme and get permission to take over lands under the Forest and Wildlife Departments. They will shortly sell these lands to big companies.”

Nanayakkara said that the President had insisted that he was not coming to villages to facilitate deforestation. However, its MPs claimed that opposing the clearing of forests amounted to terrorism.

“In almost every Divisional Secretariat area forests are being cleared and minerals extracted without following proper procedure. Government politicians and their henchmen are carrying out these activities. When we were in power we imposed restrictions on exploiting natural resources, but such action did not adversely affect the construction or industry. When the President came to power he allowed various people to exploit natural resources freely. He did so to win the general election. The genie was let out of the bottle and now there is nothing the government can do. Now the Defence Secretary says a monk close to the government is clearing forests illegally. Why doesn’t the government stop the priest?”