The Hon. Ruwan Wijeweera
Ruwan Wijeweera raised concerns about unauthorized occupation of lands transferred to Divisional Secretaries in the Wandama–Demaliya area of Buttala DS since 2021. He noted that traditional chena cultivation has been affected by increased elephant encroachment and that large areas are being fenced off with elephant fences, and asked what measures the Forest Department will take to address the situation.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Minister. My first supplementary: In Buttala DS, in the Wandama–Demaliya area, much of the lands transferred to Divisional Secretaries since 2021 are now occupied by unauthorized persons. Historically, traditional chena cultivation existed, but the area is now highly sensitive due to rapid elephant encroachment. People are fencing 100–150 acres with elephant fences, creating serious issues. What measures will the Forest Department take to manage this?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 23 January 2026 ·No. 23290 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/14315
Cite as: The Hon. Ruwan Wijeweera. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 January 2026. No. 23290. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/14315