Trinco Forest Conservation Lands To Be Studied Before Allowing Food Cultivation In Them
Shakila Ifham
July 8, 2022
Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera yesterday instructed to conduct a joint comprehensive survey of the lands under forest conservation in the Trincomalee district that can be used for cultivation.
This follows a recent discussion he had with the officials of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and the District Secretary of Trincomalee and all the Divisional Secretaries in the District through the zoom application.
This discussion was held at the request of the public in some divisional secretariats of Trincomalee district, who are suffering from lack of suitable land for cultivation.
Some divisional secretaries said that more than three-fourths of the total land in their jurisdiction was marked as forest conservation land, so the farmers were facing a big problem because they did not have land for cultivation.
Minister who paid attention to this request said that according to the government’s decision to use all cultivable land for cultivation, such lands under the Department of Forestry can be given after a special joint public investigation is conducted regarding those lands.
Minister also instructed the Secretary of the Ministry of Wildlife and Forestry, Mrs. Chandra Herath to take steps to conduct a joint public investigation of the forest conservation lands that can be used for cultivation in the Trincomalee district.
Several persons including a representative from the area’s agriculture, wildlife, forestry departments and people from the area, will be nominated to the investigation committee.
The Trincomalee District Secretary is to be appointed its chair.
The Minister said that the government intended to use all lands that can be cultivated for food crops and that the government had decided to temporarily take over all the uncultivated lands and transfer them to other persons for cultivation.
People requesting land for cultivation should be provided other land only if they had cultivated their residential land, the Minister said.
He also mentioned that no new land would be given for cultivation to any person who requests more land without cultivating the land on which he resided.
The secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Chandra Herath, who expressed her opinion, emphasized that the land is given by the government not to expand the amount of land owned by a person, but to expand the cultivation
FAQs