No hotel inside Sinharaja Reserve - Gammanpila

Chamikara Weerasinghe

There is no chance for the construction of an "eco-tourist hotel" inside the Sinharaja Forest Reserve or inside its buffer zone, former Chairman Central Environment Authority and current Western Province Agriculture, Agrarian Development, Irrigation, Livestock Production and Development, Trade and Environment Minister Udaya Gammanpila said yesterday.

Dismissing media claims that he had given approval to build a tourist hotel in the country's primary rain forest which holds a large number of endemic flora as "false" and "baseless", Gammanpila said: " there is a hotel being put up, but the area in which it is constructed does not belong to the declared forest land nor its buffer zone as some media have claimed."

Gammanpila was speaking at a press conference held at Central Environment Authority, Battaramulla, yesterday.

Some reports have hinted that "gene thefts" of endemic fauna have taken place with allegations leveled against the hotel as the centre of operations. But the hotel does not have facilities to carry out bio-thefts of the nature, Chairman Central Environment Authority Dr. Wimaladharma Abeywickrema said.

"However, the Central Environment Authority is on the alert about such possibilities to prevent them," Dr. Abeywickrema said. Gammanpila said, reports have claimed that permission for the putting up of the hotel structure concerned had been given without consulting the Forest Department, whereas permission had been granted for its construction after an Initial Environment Impact Assessment carried out by the CEA and the Forest Department.

CEA Director General Pasan Gunasena said, there was a request for the construction of a laboratary with the hotel's project proposal.

"We have refused it," he said.

"The land which the hotel is being built, is located on a tea estate that belongs to Mathurata Plantations," he added.