BOC to help grow 100-hectare forest in Galoya
View(s):The Bank of Ceylon (BOC), as part of assisting the improving forest cover up to 32 per cent in Sri Lanka by 2020, has formulated a project to reforest 100 hectares in the Galoya Forest Reserve in a stretch close to the Habarana Colombo-Trincomalee main road.
For this purpose, the bank has signed a MoU with Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry and the Forest Department on September 5 at the Sobhadam Piyasa, Battaramulla, in the presence of State Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry Ajith Mannaperruma. BOC Chairman Ronald C. Perera and CEO/ General Manager Senarath Bandara, DGM Sales and Channel Management C. Amarasinghe and DGM Retail Banking (Range 1 and Range 2) E.M. Jayaratne, represented the bank and Secretary to the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment Anura Dissanayake, State Secretary to the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment MPDUK Mapa Pathirana and Conservator General, Department of Forest Conservation WAC Weragoda, represented the ministry.
The Galoya Forest Reserve altogether owns 14,000 hectares of which almost 6000 hectares has been deforested due to various reasons. The BOC says the new project has comprehensively looked into improve this land scale and contribute to improve environment quality of the country. It will eliminate the growth of invasive plants such as Shrub Verbena (Gandapana), Speer grass (iluk plant) and Ceylon citronella plant (Mana plant), reduce chances of wildfire and the spread of such, will limit feeding cattle inside the forest reserve and will regenerate natural growth of plants that form the forest, the bank said in a media release.