Alas, the axe falls on trees of the Kissing Bend
The bend in the road popularly known as the “Kissing Bend” situated within the Peradeniya University will no longer be the same as authorities have chopped down the massive trees, some of which are believed to have stood for more than hundred years at the bend.
These trees had stood there even when the land was a rubber plantation run by the British Army.
Even after the setting up of the university, the trees had remained as lone sentinels. The bend with the large trees, which offered plenty of shade, was a popular spot for generations of student couples at the university in the evenings as they left for the nearby hostels.
Alas, the axe fell on all these trees recently and the bend is now bare land, disfigured by the stumps and branches of the trees that stood there for so long.
Peradeniya University Vice Chancellor Upul B. Dissanayake told the Sunday Times that the trees had been felled by the Road
Development Authority (RDA) to widen the bend and lay a new pipeline. He also claimed that the aging trees had posed a safety risk, with a large branch once falling on a vehicle travelling on the road.