The Wildlife Ministry is to present a paper to the Cabinet of Ministers on the lands identified by the Forest Department to be released in the Northern Province, it is learnt.

The decision to present a Cabinet paper was reached during a meeting between President Ranil Wickremesinghe and members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). 

The President was accompanied by Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda, newly-appointed Wildlife Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, and senior officials from the Departments of Archaeology, Wildlife, and Forest.

The TNA was represented by R. Sampanthan and M.A. Sumanthiran.

President Wickremesinghe had said during the meeting that lands that were earlier decided to be released that were under the control of the military would be released for agricultural purposes in the north. 

The military has been asked to announce the extent of land that will be released along with the date.

The Archaeology Department officials had then said that they had placed stone markings on some lands, but that the lands had still not been gazetted. They had explained that most of the stones were placed due to pressure from certain quarters at the time. Hence, the Archaeology Department has agreed to remove the stones placed in some of the lands in order to release them.

The Forest Department officials had responded saying that the department was prepared to de-gazette some of the lands by going back to the 1985 forest lines. However, the officials had said that it would take about three to four months to carry out the process.

The TNA members had then expressed concern, saying that while the willingness to release lands was a positive movement, there needed to be a proper timeframe.

Minister Wanniarachchi had then said that she would present a Cabinet paper this week on the extent of lands to be released by the Forest Department at district level.