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Underworld figures linked to politician plunder Yala forest land during curfew
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About 100 acres of forest cover in a reservation bordering the Yala sanctuary have been illegally cleared during the curfew by people suspected to be underworld figures also involved in the heroin trade and with links to a powerful local politician in Kataragama, wildlife sources said.
So far, three suspects have been arrested by the army and handed over to the Kataragama Police along with agricultural equipment and motorbikes.
The police say more than 25 families are engaged in clearing the reservation belonging to the Wildlife Conservation Department bordering the Yala National Park in the Kandasurindugama in the Kataragama Divisional Secretariat.
The suspects are also believed to have taken over some land illegally. Some plots are being sold to buyers from Colombo.
Government officers have noticed some cleared sites that have been fenced off. The plots are bordering the Yala reservation in front of the Kataragama Gam Udawa.
Wildlife conservation officers have alerted the police and the army in the Southern Province that the families are moving about on motorbikes at night and using agricultural equipment and generators to clear about 100 acres of forest land. They are operating about a kilometre away on the Kataragama Kadasurindugama Galapitiiya Road from Weherakema to Sellakataragama.
OIC M Pallliyagama of the Special Task Force Camp at Kataragama said: “We are unable to take any action over possession of those lands. We learnt that earlier too, in a raid by wildlife officers with the help of the army intelligence service, a few thugs who had been destroying the forest had been seized and handed over to the Kataragama Police. These raids will continue.’’
The illegally cleared forest area. Pix by Janath de Silva