Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2023-09-25

Taking steps to prevent and control forest fires

- Given the man-made fires in the forests, there is a tendency to increase the risk of forest fires rapidly especially during dry whether conditions. This situation commonly can be seen in the districts of Badulla, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Monaragala, Polonnaruwa, Kurunegala, Puttalam and Rathnapura. About 150 forest fires have been reported so far this year and in consequence of that, approximately 2,600 hectares of forests have been destroyed. As such, the proposal made by the Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation to implement a programme to prevent and extinguish the forest fires with the assistance of the Government mechanism and other relevant parties from national level to village level, was approved by the Cabinet.