Cabinet Spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena has explained that the decision to remove the ‘Crudia zeylanica’ tree, located in the area of Daraluwa in Gampaha, was a policy decision made by the Government.
Speaking at a cabinet briefing on Tuesday morning (11 July), Gunawardena explained that the removal of the tree in question was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, after he, in his capacity as the Minister of Transport, made a request in this regard.
He further explained that the uprooting of the endemic tree in order to continue construction of the Central Expressway was not, in fact, as harmful as certain parties portrayed it to be.
“I called for an inspection in this regard, and a report was subsequently compiled. There are 15 such trees which are over 40 years old, and there are 25 trees with a height between 12ft – 15 ft.”, he said, adding that they have also taken the necessary measures to plant another 200 ‘Crudia zeylanica’ trees on behalf of the one that they intend on uprooting.
Gunawardena further highlighted that had the tree been uprooted prior to the COVID-19 crisis, when the matter was initially brought up, it would have cost Rs. 10 million.
However, as a result of the uproar created by several parties for both political and other reasons, the matter was temporarily halted, and as a result, will now cost Rs. 30 million.
Many parties including Gampaha District Forest Officer Dewani Jayathilaka, environmentalists, and Buddhist clergy had come forward to protect the tree, which is listed in the Red Data Book as an endangered species.
“We could have saved millions for the people of this country, but unfortunately, this is not the case”, he said.
Speaking on the agreement reached in 2021 to carry out the development work on the Central Expressway without removing the plant from the site, the Cabinet Spokesman explained that doing so would have caused the government to incur a loss of Rs. 15 million.
Thus, he explained that while it has been proven that the ‘Crudia zeylanica’ tree could, in fact, be planted again, the Cabinet of Ministers too, unanimously decided that there was no requirement to preserve the plant in question, at such a high cost.
