All National Parks open

Chamikara Weerasinghe

*Landmine clearing in final stages in Kumana

*Upgrading to lure more tourists

All National Parks in the country will soon be open to foreign and local visitors, said Environment and Natural Resources Minister Champika Ranawaka. He said this on Saturday after opening the Kumana National Park that had been closed to the public from 1985 to 2003 due to terrorist activities, and also after being badly affected by the tsunami in 2004.

The park has also remained closed from 2006 with the Government launching its humanitarian mission to liberate the country from the clutches of terrorism. The Minister also opened two new national park offices at Lahugala and Kumana.

Minister Ranawaka said , the Wildlife Conservation Department and the Forest Department will open all the 20 game sanctuaries in the country including Wilpattu National Park, located in the Northwest coast lowland dry zone. It, will be opened to public without delay.

He said infrastructure of the Wilpattu National Park is now being developed for tourism and visits with terrorists being flushed out of the forest reserve by the Security Forces.

“The work concerning clearing of land mines which were planted by the LTTE, has reached the final stages.

“We will be able to open the Park in April,” he said.

“Being able to open the country’s National Parks is a dream come true for the Wildlife Department and Forest Department after prolonged closures,” he pointed out.

“This has placed us with many opportunities to develop tourism and rake in the all important revenue to develop our forests, protect biodiversity and manifold ecosystems,” he said.

Since the opening of the Yala and Udawalawe National Parks , their revenue has increased three fold in comparison to 2008. The Minister said the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry has earned Rs 3,000 million last year with its income having increased after opening the National Parks.

“It is expected to earn Rs 200 million from visitors to the Yala National Park this year,” he said.

“ Yala is also getting modernized in keeping with our future plans for the Park,” he added.

He said , the Government has brought all game parks in the country together in keeping with a policy decision to protect the country’s forest lands for future generations with an emphasis that no individual, community or political section should be allowed to use the forest lands owned by the State.

“We have stopped the common practice of trying to acquire forest lands to be distributed for political party supporters during election time,” he said.