The Road Development Authority (RDA) says President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has instructed to temporarily suspend road development work taking place near the Sinharaja Forest & World Heritage Site.
The instruction comes after the Centre for Environmental and Nature Studies of Sri Lanka (CENS) had filed a complaint with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on the illegal construction of a road inside the Sinharaja World Heritage Site.
In a letter to UNESCO, the National Coordinator for CENS Ravindra Kariyawasam said the road construction work goes on buffer zone and inside the Sinharaja world heritage site in the Lankagama area to Deniyaya.
The construction commenced on 10 August by engineering personnel from the Sri Lanka Army on behalf of the Sri Lankan government.
The construction is reportedly a project that was launched in 2013 which was halted by UNESCO in the same year following a complaint filed by the CENS.
The Sinharaja Forest Reserve is the unique remaining virgin tropical rainforest in Sri Lanka. It is of international significance and has been designated as a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site by UNESCOin 1989.
Ravindra Kariyawasam further called on UNESCO to initiate action against the illegal road construction in the Sinharaja Forest and help the CENS protect the virgin forest land in Sri Lanka. (Newswire)