State forest with kohomba illegally razed: who is in control?
State land with valued kohomba (neem) trees has been cleared illegally in the Medawachchiya area but state agencies are at odds over who the responsible caretaker is, with contradictory gazette notifications being blamed for the muddle.
Medawachchiya Divisional Secretary M.C. Mallawarachchi says the cleared land belongs to the Forestry Department and therefore the Medawachchiya Forestry Office has responsibility over it.
She was aware of four to five acres containing kohomba trees being cleared on land belonging to the Forestry Office.
“There is another property of 40 acres that was cleared over a period of 10 years which belongs to the Divisional Secretariat,” Ms Mallawarachchi added. “For that, I have taken action and filed a court case against six individuals.”
Medawachchiya police say they have arrested six people for clearing land in Medawachchiya but are unaware of a kohomba plantation being cleared.
A former Forestry Department official, speaking anonymously, told the Sunday Times the land’s ownership was in dispute; it was an area of residual forest on state land and not “directly owned” by the Forestry Department.
He said the department usually demarcates boundaries and maintains a register of forest plantations under its control but there was no registry record of a kohomba plantation there.
The official said because the government had issued circular after circular about residual forest on state land there was confusion over ownership of several such areas.
According to a 5/2001 circular, all residual forest on state land belongs to the Forestry
Department but circular 1/2020 issued last year stated the department should demarcate such land and hand it over to the relevant divisional secretary. Another circular issued afterwards gave divisional secretaries authority over all state forests.
Whenever state officers were unsure of land ownership due to state decisions, people grabbed the land and cleared it for profit, the official said.
The Conservator of the Forest Department, Nishantha Edirisinghe, admitted that there was a confusion over the circulars issued. He said the 5/2001 circular had been cancelled but the other two circulars were valid, causing confusion among officials when action was needed. He echoed concerns about land-grabbing.
“The department is having discussions with the Ministry of Lands regarding the issue,” he said
Mr. Edirisinghe said 1.3 million hectares of state forest have been declared reserves and the department was working to have the remaining state forests also made reserves and was in discussion with the State Minister of Wildlife Protection, Wimalaweera Dissanayake, to expedite this process.
Kohomba (Azadirachta indica), also called neem, vembu and margosa, is valued for its healing properties and is used for many medicinal purposes.