State Minister of Defence concerns on increased forest fires
August 23, 2023- State Minister of Defence chairs discussion to reduce forest fires caused due to prevailing dry weather
A discussion was held yesterday (August 22) at the office of the State Minister of Defence Hon. Premitha Bandara Tennakoon on the prevailing dry weather and the increase of forest fires in the country.
During the discussion, the State Minister drew the attention of officials of the Armed Forces, Police, Fire Brigade and Forest Conservation Department as well as other relevant parties on this issue and further discussed the measures that can be taken to reduce possible forest fires.
Further, State Minister Tennakoon said that with the prevailing dry weather, forest fire incidents have increased due to deliberate or careless human activities and such actions are also likely to occur due to camping groups. Therefore, he said that everyone should pay more attention to taking preemptive measures to prevent such destruction to forests.
Defence Ministry’s Senior Assistant Secretary (Defence) Harsha Withanarachchi, Director General of Disaster Management Centre (DMC) Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe, Director General (Naval Infantry) Rear Admiral P.A.J.N. Ponnamperuma, Director General of Forest Conservation Department K.M.A. Bandara, Deputy Director General of Wildlife Conservation Department Suriya Bandara, Chief Fire Officer P.D.K.A. Wilson, Additional Director General of Civil Security Department Rear Admiral W.D.M. Sudarshana, Army’s Director Operations Major General Najiwa Edirisinghe, Staff Officer 1 Air Operations (Actg) Wing Commander Pasan Dayananda, Senior Superintendent of Police D.D.D. Hettiarachchi, H.K.S.S Gunasekara of the Ministry of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure, military and police officers also attended the discussion.
Commenting at a media briefing after the discussion on the increase in forest fires and preventive measures taken, State Minister Tennakoon said, that due to the prevailing dry weather, a large number of fires have been reported in forest reserves and plantations and that in comparison with 78 forest fires reported last year, already 123 forest fires have been reported this year.
The DMC, Armed Forces, Fire Brigades, District and the Divisional Secretariats, Wildlife Department and the Forest Conservation Department have made great efforts in the last few days to suppress forest fires caused due to the prevailing dry weather condition.
He also said that arrangements have been made to delegate a number of monitoring activities to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), Wildlife Department, Forest Conservation Department, Plantation Industry and the Ports Authority and also special requests have been made to the Forest Conservation Department and Wildlife Department to control this situation especially in highly sensitive areas and that the DMC and Ministry of Defence have discussed on how support could be extended towards this.
Accordingly, we hope to implement a special program to create fire belts in the next few days, and we have taken steps to start a special program for training of armed forces and CSD personnel by the Fire Brigade, he said.
As there is an increased tendency for forest fires to occur in the plantation sector, State Minister Tennakoon told the media that he had informed the Minister of Plantation and the Secretary of the Ministry to make aware the private and government estate superintendents of this situation and to take all efforts to prevent possible forest fires. He further said that a special request was made to the Wildlife Minister to take necessary measures to prevent people from entering sensitive areas.
The State Minister said that it has been observed that some people in villages set fire to forests due to superstitious beliefs that such actions would bring in rain, he requested the people to refrain from such destructive activities while emphasizing the importance of collective support to control such activities.
It is also observed that these forest fires are fueled by action of groups of young people, trekkers and campers who venture into forests for hunting, Chena cultivation and for recreation.
State Minister Tennakoon, who urged all people to avoid from involving in such harmful acts and said that he has requested the Forest Conservation Department, the Wildlife Department and the Police to take punitive actions keeping within the existing legal framework to offenders involved in creating forest fires.
