Responding to a query raised by UPFA National List MP (Al-Haj) AHM Azwer, the minister said that the Knuckles Forest Reserve had been declared as World Heritage Site therefore the area had been prohibited for cultivation.

Minister Cooray said that cardamom imported in small quantities from India. In September 2014, a total of 17,515 kilos had been imported. There were no persons engaged in cardamom cultivation on permanent basis. Research was being carried out to introduce other cash crops for the cardamom cultivators. There was a decline of cardamom production owing to a disease caught by the cardamom plants recently. The disease had been controlled and the cultivators were encouraged to resume their cultivations, the minister said. (Special Reporter/HC)