Twenty further forests covering 9,538.68 hectares across six districts were declared forest reserves under gazette notifications signed on Saturday, taking the total area protected under the government’s Vanaspathi programme to close to 65,000 hectares.
This article was first published on 25 September, when the declarations were still pending. It has been updated with the confirmed gazetting and the full list of the 20 forests — see the update below.
The reserves are located in the Anuradhapura, Nuwara Eliya, Kegalle, Badulla, Vavuniya and Ampara districts, NewsFirst reported. NewsFirst renders the minister’s name as Dhammika Patabendi; this site uses the spelling carried by the majority of Sri Lankan outlets.
Environment Minister Dr. Dammika Patabendi is to sign the gazette notifications during a field programme at the Sadathenna Forestry College in Nuwara Eliya, the Daily Mirror reported. Deputy Minister Anton Jayakody, Conservator General of Forests S. C. Palamakumbura and the Nuwara Eliya District Secretary are expected to attend.
The Minister added that steps will also be taken to open a forestry museum in conjunction with the declarations. He gave no location or opening date for it.
Ninety-three forests gazetted so far
According to the Ministry of Environment, 93 forests have been gazetted as reserves by the present government working with the Department of Forest Conservation. Saturday’s 20 additions are expected to bring the total extent protected under the programme to nearly 65,000 hectares — an average of roughly 600 hectares per block, against about 477 hectares for each of the forests being added this weekend.
The ministry says 86 forest reserves were protected between the programme’s launch on World Environment Day in 2025 and World Environment Day 2026, which it describes as the largest number of forests protected in a single year in Sri Lankan history.
The blocks brought under protection include tropical moist evergreen forest, montane and submontane forest, tropical dry mixed evergreen forest, intermediate-zone semi-evergreen forest, and coastal and mangrove systems.
The ministry frames Vanaspathi as going beyond tree planting — a long-term, science-based approach to ecosystem management covering protection, restoration and sustainable management, with local community participation. The declarations feed a stated government target of raising Sri Lanka’s total forest cover to 32% by 2032.
Part of a running programme
The declaration continues the national Vanaspathi forest reserve programme, under which tens of thousands of hectares have been gazetted since 2025 in repeated batches rather than a single designation.
Earlier rounds have followed the same pattern of tying announcements to environmental observances. Five Anuradhapura forests totalling 2,169 hectares — Ritigala, Aliyawetuna Wewa, Bulagala, Konketiyawa and Kallanchiya — were declared reserves around World Environment Day in June. In August the Ministry moved to bring 1,500 hectares in Nuwara Eliya into protected zones.
Gazetting confers legal protection on a forest block, restricting clearance and encroachment and placing the land under Forest Conservation Department control.
Update — 26 September: gazetted, and every block named
The declarations went ahead on Saturday. In a report published that night, NewsFirst named all 20 forests and gave each one’s extent — the detail missing from the advance coverage — and put the combined area at 9,538.68 hectares.
The 20 extents sum to exactly 9,538.68 hectares, matching the stated total.
The single largest addition is the Algin Forest at Talawakelle in Nuwara Eliya, at 1,419.45 hectares — a central highlands block NewsFirst describes as important for watershed protection.
The district breakdown is heavily weighted towards the north. Vavuniya accounts for 6,464.58 hectares, more than two-thirds of the total, across seven blocks: Karungalikulam 02 (2,537.4 ha), Periyakattikulam 02 (1,301.07 ha), Vannivilankulam 02 (922.49 ha), Periyamadu 02 (800.86 ha), Nedunkeni Chamalankulam 02 (580.28 ha), Puthukulam 02 (186.97 ha) and Puliyankulam 02 (135.51 ha).
Ampara contributes 859.27 hectares — the Lahugala Sengamuwa Forest (758.2 ha) and the Lahugala Shastrawela Aliyakanda Mangrove Mixed Forest (101.07 ha).
Anuradhapura, despite having the most blocks after Vavuniya, adds the smallest area of any district with a full set: five forests totalling 339.21 hectares — Naegama (190.28 ha), Kandulegama (46.32 ha), Thambuttegama Habarawatta (43.99 ha), a Medawachchiya block (40.78 ha) and Musnawa (17.84 ha).
Kegalle adds three blocks totalling 258.29 hectares — Rahalagala (157.77 ha), Balalgala (73.22 ha) and Bathalegala (27.3 ha). Badulla adds two, totalling 197.88 hectares — Mahiyanganaya Heerussagala (168.09 ha) and Mahiyanganaya Moopalana (29.79 ha).
The figures show how uneven the round is: Vavuniya’s seven northern blocks carry the area, while the 12 blocks in Anuradhapura, Kegalle and Badulla together come to under 800 hectares.
NewsFirst renders the minister’s name as Dhammika Patabendi, the same spelling used in its earlier report. It quotes him saying the declarations are intended to deliver long-term environmental, ecological and social benefits, and to protect biodiversity and safeguard water resources.
Still not reported
Neither outlet says what activities the new reserve status will restrict in practice, which agency will run the proposed forestry museum, or how the reserves will be enforced once declared. NewsFirst does not give the gazette numbers.
