Govt. to ban ‘Wadu Madu’ and chainsaws
Posted on June 6th, 2019

Sandun A. Jayasekera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Legal and administrative steps would be taken by the government shortly to prohibit the import of tree cutting machines, chainsaws, mechanical saws and the carpenter sheds popularly known as ‘wadu maduwa’, in a bid to protect the environment – in particular, the forest density of the country, President Maithripala Sirisena declared today.

He added that people would have to import furniture as deforestation and tree cutting would be banned fully. 

Delivering the keynote address at a ceremony held to mark ‘World Environment Day 2019’ under the theme, ‘Minimising of air pollution through sustainable forest management’ at the BMICH last morning, President Sirisena went on to say that if these measures were taken and implemented for ten years, the forest density of Sri Lanka could be increased to an environment friendly 32% from the current not so satisfactory 28%. A few months ago, I went to a funeral house at Kurunegala. A poor looking old person approached me and asked, ‘Sir you are the Environment Minister?’ and I said ‘yes’. He again said you work hard to protect the environment and forests, don’t you? Yes, no one can cut trees without my permission, I said. 

Then he said cutting of hundreds of trees using chainsaws in many parts of the country around the year was a common sight everywhere. If you want to stop cutting of trees in a haphazard manner, you must do something for this. It was after this poor citizen drew my attention to the harm done to our forests using chainsaws that I decided to register chainsaws at Divisional Secretariats and obtain permits to use them to restrict the use of chainsaws. As a further measure to put an end to this destruction, I will also prohibit the import of chainsaws, tree cutting machines and maintaining of carpenter shops,” President Sirisena stressed. He said no official, even from the Environment Ministry, Forest Department or Central Environment Authority (CEA) had educated him on the damage done to Sri Lanka’s forests by chain saws until this person did it. When laws to register chainsaws were made effective, 82000 chainsaws had been registered island wide in three weeks. I have been using a chopper to travel to distant places in Sri Lanka as a minister for about 25 years. 

After becoming the president, I use the helicopter at least twice a week. I enjoy the beauty of our country when I fly within Sri Lanka. The greenery of vast forests, the blue waters of rivers and the blue sky make Sri Lanka a paradise,” he added. When he visited India last week, he said he had to travel with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Delhi in a chopper. What he saw all the way was barren and yellowish lands. When I checked the temperature in New Delhi, it was at 47 centigrade while the temperature in Colombo was at 30 centigrade. 

The air quality index in New Delhi was 113 particle matters, in Lahore, it was 114, in Washington DC it was 8 and in Colombo 32. We must try our best to bring Colombo to the level of Washington DC. The welcome address was made by Director General of the CEA, Hemantha Jayasinghe. President Sirisena launched the ‘Water Quality Monitoring’ website of the CEA. (

7 Responses to “Govt. to ban ‘Wadu Madu’ and chainsaws”

  1. NeelaMahaYoda Says:

    Sirisena gone mad.

    Why he should ban the carpenter sheds popularly known as ‘wadu maduwa’, Instead he should ban lumber mills not Carpenter shed or Wadu Maduwa where they make furniture out of imported wood.

    Local name for lumber mill is Wadu Pattalaya where they turn out lumber from logs on a specially made platform manually using special type of heavy duty saw handle by two carpenters one on the platform and one on ground.

  2. Randeniyage Says:

    This fool is a disgrace to mankind.
    He will ban “Porawa”, “Manne” and finally “Pihiya” also, because of his “Mollaya”.
    He is a phsycopath taking orders from India.

  3. Dilrook Says:

    Ban felling tress and ban chainsaws given the large increase recently but not carpentry works. Imported timber is mostly used.

    Banning the tree felling industry is a good thing. However, this doesn’t do that specifically. We must protect the very limited forest cover. Otherwise we end up like India or Arabia.

  4. aloy Says:

    Ban anything, they will try to make it at home. That is good in a way.

  5. Ananda-USA Says:

    I don’t agree with a TOTAL, NON-SPECIFIC BAN of tree-felling at all, because of its adverse effet on ECONOMIC ACTIVITY and EMPLOYMENT. This has to be done INTELLIGENTLY only when IMPORTED WOOD can OFFSET the effect of local wood production.

    For example, it would prevent felling of trees to clear building sites and road access for home and business construction. Chain saws are ESSENTIAL for the felling of those trees, and WADU MADU are necessary to utilize trees that are legally cutdown for production of woodsn articles such as doors, windows, and furniture.

    Such a BLANKET BAN would ARREST the ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT of the country in a VERY SIGNIFICANT way.

    Instead, pass laws that require the felling of trees to be permitted after inspection for compliance with ENVIRONMENTALLY COMPATIBLE CRITERIA. Develop those CRITERIA for felling trees after studying the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT.

    In addition, the laws should include SITE-SPECIFIC requirements for PLANTING NEW TREES if EXISTING TREES are cutdown for the development at a building site.

    Already there are laws in force that LIMIT/PROHIBIT the cutting down of certain types of useful/valuable trees such as JACKFRUIT trees.

  6. Christie Says:

    Sirisena the cunning bas….

    His dowry from him to his daughter in law who makes a lot of aluminum and steel doors, windows and frames.

    What a craft ty bugg..

    Could this be an attack on an upcoming Sinhala enterprise Damro who has started growing their own timber plantations.

  7. Ratanapala Says:

    This looks very much like the solution given by Mahadanamutta when confronted by a goat having put its head in a pot. His advice was to behead the goat in order to save the pot. When asked how to get the goat’s head he said to break the pot.

    President Sirisena’s advice in this instance is not far away from Mahadanamutta’s! Well done our great and simple President, we appreciate your timely advice to save the trees. To save the livelihood of the carpenters let them cut trees in other countries!

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