Fifty-acre plot of land allocated:

Seventy-three families in Wilpattu sanctuary to be relocated

by Manjula Fernando

The 73 families who had encroached on the Wilpattu sanctuary causing widespread protests by environmental and Buddhist groups will be relocated outside the national park with the assistance of the Mannar District Secretary’s office.

Commerce and Industry Minister Rishard Bathiudeen said he had no objection to the families being relocated and hoped the issue will not be dragged on by interested parties even after they are relocated.

Mannar District Secretary M.Y.S. Deshapriya said a 50-acre plot of land, one mile away from the spot where they currently stay, had been allocated for the 73 families and these families will be relocated shortly. The families told the electronic media last week that they were willing to move out if alternative accommodation is given to them.

The Bodu Bala Sena stormed the Wilpattu sanctuary recently alleging that the Muslim settlements within the national park were illegal and moreover, the occupants were willfully destroying the ancient Buddhist ruins in the locality. A spokesman for the Environment Conservation Trust, an independent green NGO in Sri Lanka last week said that over 500 acres of protected forest in the Wilpattu North Sanctuary had been cleared for human settlements but the authorities were turning a blind eye to it.