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PIU probes destruction of over 1000 valuable trees close to Sinharaja
The Presidential Investigation Unit (PIU) has stepped in to investigate the destruction of over 1100 valuable trees in an area of nearly five acres of land adjoining the Sinharaja Forest Reserve. The trees had been destroyed by injecting a poisonous substance into them.
Holes had been bored in the trunks and a poisonous substance injected into them
The land, though privately owned, contained a large number of valuable trees comprising varieties which cannot be cut down without the permission of the Central Environment of Authority (CEA), PIU Director General Ruban Wickramarachchi said.
The PIU had started the investigation after the matter was brought to its notice by the President’s Office late last year.
After a field visit to the land in Kalawana, in an area known as Kudumiriya, Naavitigala and Mukalana, investigating officials had found that big holes had been bored into the trunks of the trees using a drill, and a white substance had been injected into them. Many of the trees had died.
“The owners of the land had wanted to grow tea and had sought the permission of the Tea Board to do so; but they had been told to first get clearance from the CEA– which advice they had disregarded. Instead they had stealthily set about destroying the tress thus violating the environmental laws,” Mr.Wickramaarachchi said.
Senior Investigating Officer O.P.Karunadasa and Investigating Officers W.L.I.Boteju and E.G. Sunil, who inspected the land, believe that this mode of destroying the trees was used as cutting them would have attracted attention with the sound caused by the sawing.
An official of the Government Analyst’s Department too, visited the land and took samples from the trees. The GA’s report has confirmed that a poisonous substance was injected into the trunks of trees to destroy them. The impact of the poison was gradual with the leaves first withering away followed by the tree dying.
The GA’s report also said that, due to intermittent rains in the area in the past few months, the poisonous substance had entered the water stream and fish in the streams near the land, too, had died.
Kalawana Police have since arrested the man responsible for drilling and injecting the poison into the trees, while several other persons are to be charged by the CEA for violating environmental laws.