Government must protect environmental value : Pahiyangala Thero

COLOMBO (News1st): The government must take steps to protect the environmental value of the country, civic activist Ven. Pahiyangala Ananada Sagara Thero has said. He made these remarks after the Surakimu Sri Lanka Organization, in which he is chairman, visited Daraluwa, in which a long-standing tree is facing a threat of being uprooted. The tree, classified as a protected species, under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, is facing the risk of being uprooted while constructing the Kandy Expressway. Although the Director of the Department of Wildlife Conservation had indicated his agreement to relocate this plant elsewhere, the Department of Forest Conservation has not granted its consent on the matter.