Work on Seethawaka botanical garden in full swing

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

Construction work on the new botanical garden at Avissawella is in full swing, said National Botanical Gardens, Director General Dr. Cyril Wijesundara.

The new Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanical Garden will be Sri Lanka's sixth botanical garden.

Initially, the garden will be developed on a 62-acre land adjacent to the Indikada Mookalana forest reserve, a unique eco system close to Colombo city.

"The new botanical garden will be an ideal spot for the conservation of flora in the Wet Zone including endangered and rarely found plants in rain forests," Dr. Wijesundara said.

He said it was important to have such botanical gardens in the different climate zones to support the conservation of Sri Lanka's rich biodiversity.

"These gardens support the eco tourism sector which is currently one of the main attractions in the tourism industry," he said.

The National Botanical Gardens Department, on the instructions of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, conducts development programs to promote eco tourism and the floriculture industry.

Through these botanical gardens, the Department promotes floriculture among the public as a self-employment venture as floriculture is one of the sectors that comes under the Economic Development Ministry's Divi Neguma livelihood development program.

As envisioned in the Mahinda Chinthana the Government targets to construct 10 botanical gardens by 2016.