New legal provisions to halt felling coconut trees: Pathirana

Immediate steps would be taken to stop the felling of coconut trees. Accordingly, the coconut tree will also be included in the Felling of Trees (Control) Act., Plantations Minister, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said in Parliament.

He said this while responding to a question raised by MPs Hector Appuhamy and Upul Mahendra Rajapaksa at the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Plantation held recently.

MP Hector Appuhamy pointed out that businessmen remove the coconut trees before fragmenting the plots, especially when selling lands. When the investigators visit to inspect these plots of land and categorise them as land without coconut trees. 

He further said that organized fraud is taking place in connection with this.