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Sri Lanka Army

Defender of the Nation

11th May 2016 16:56:06 Hours

Suspects in Illicit Tree Felling Nabbed while in Action

15 (V) Gemunu Watch (GW) troops of the 54 Division, headquartered in Mannar while on routine patrol duty in the general area of Kunchikulam on Friday (6) succeeded in apprehending five persons, engaged in illicit tree felling in wayside jungles. 

To comply with the Presidential directives, Lieutenant General Crishanthe De Silva, Commander of the Army recently instructed all formations across the country to be alert to this illicit tree-felling and cooperate with Forest Conservation officials and respective Police stations for arrest of suspects.     

Having noticed the act, the troops had gone into the interior and found that five civilians were engaged in felling satinwood trees using saws and axes. 

Troops on the instructions of the General Officer Commanding, 54 Division immediately contacted the area officer in charge of the Department of Forest Conservation, Mr H.M Wickremasinghe who arrived there and took them into custody with their paraphernalia. 

In the past few weeks, 54 Division troops serving Mannar - Madu areas were able to detect several such incidents and hand over the suspects to relevant authorities. 

On 21 April, 612 Brigade (Bde) troops of the 61 Division (Div) serving in Madu area apprehended a stock of illicitly felled satinwood logs while they were being transported away from the Madu Forest Reserve.

Similarly, a large scale illicit felling of satinwood trees continuing in the Madhu Forest Reserve in the 61 Division area of the Security Force Headquarters - Wanni (SFHQ-W) was detected by a team of Army personnel engaged in a jungle training exercise on 31 March, 2016. 

(See News Highlights captioned ‘Alert Troops Apprehend One More Lorryload of Satinwood from Madu Area’ (21 April 2016) and ‘Army Troops Detect Large Scale Satinwood Tree Felling Jungle Spot’ (2 April 2016)