Crudia zeylanica tree in danger?

COLOMBO (News1st): Sri Lanka's highways minister has said that a project that would avoid harming the Crudia Zeylanica tree would result in a higher cost, stoking imminent danger on the endemic plant. "The project will cost 6.7 billion to construct 82 kilometers. But this would rise to Rs 8.7 billion to avoid the ordained tree," highways minister Johnston Fernando noted. Following these remarks, the President of the Organization to Protect Archeological Artifacts visited the location of the tree in Daraluwa this afternoon. "What is important to us is the bio-diversity of the ecosystem and its historical significance," Ven. Udasgiriya Samitha Thero, the organization President noted. The Crudia zeylanica tree had been ordained recently in a bid to protect it from being destroyed. "As the Maha Sanga, we would like to remind the minister not to insult the Sangika method which is 2500 years old," Ven. Udasgiriya Samitha Thero stressed.