Sri Lanka, Sept. 26 -- The Ministry of Environment has taken steps to declare 20 forests covering an area of over 9,538 hectares as reserved forests via a gazette notification today (26) under the "Vanaspathi" national programme.

The gazette notification declaring these forests-spread across the Nuwara Eliya, Kegalle, Ampara, Badulla, Vavuniya, and Anuradhapura districts-as reserved is scheduled to be officially launched under the patronage of Minister of Environment Dhammika Patabendi at the Sri Lanka Forestry Institute located in Sandathenna.

Under this programme aimed at protecting the country's forest system, the present government has already gazetted 93 forests as reserved. The ministry pointed out that with the addition of these ...