COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (News Cutter) – Gampaha Additional Magistrate, Fathima Zahana, has issued an order for the exhumation of the buried root of the contentious Crudia zeylanica tree.

The tree’s uprooting was done to facilitate the construction of the Central Expressway. The Chairman of the Organization to Protect Archeological Artifacts, Ven. Udasgiriya Samitha Thero, requested the Gampaha Magistrate’s Court to exhume the endemic tree, which is believed to have been buried.

The Additional Magistrate also called for increased security around the area where the tree is said to be buried. The exhumed root will be sent to a suitable conservation location after identification by an official from the botanical gardens. The case will be reviewed on August 24.