Environmentalists claim that the catchment areas of the Wilpattu National Park is being continuously destroyed for aloe vera cultivation. According to environmentalists Ravindra Kariyawasam the catchment area of the Wilpattu National Park, Rajanganaya Yaya 18, is being cleared by Aura Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
“By last year, the catchment area of the national park had been illegally destroyed and a lake created,” he said adding that photographs captured by a team of observers of the Center for the Study of the Environment and Nature today (19) show the clearing of another national park’s catchment area for aloe vera cultivation.
“Destroying a catchment area in a national park is a punishable offence under the Fauna and Flora Ordinance but with the support of politicians, the destruction of the Wilpattu National Park is being continued” Kariyawasam noted.
