The President of the NGO ‘Haritha Mithuro’ (Green Friends), N. V. Shelton, complained that a large scale racket of felling valuable and rare trees in the Sinharaja Forest Reserve, in the Hinidunkanda area in Neluwa, is being continued by an organised gang with the patronage of powerful ruling party politicians and top government officials, under whose purview the forest reserve comes with the police turning a blind eye to the illegal operation.

He divulged this at a meeting of NGOs held at the Galle District Secretariat.

The trees which are felled at the foot of the Sinharaja Forest Reserve are transported to various timber merchants in lorries sans number plates, he said.

Shelton urged the powers that be to hold an impartial inquiry and bring the culprits to book however powerful they are.