Police Special Task Force officers arrested three men on Thursday for mining gems without a licence inside the Keselgamu Oya reserve — the catchment that feeds the Castlereagh hydropower reservoir in the central hills.
Officers from the Maskeliya STF camp made the arrests after receiving information, and seized a quantity of gem-mining equipment at the site, Hiru News reported.
The unlicensed digging was taking place along a stream running through the middle of a tea estate, flowing from the Bogawantalawa Mora Estate into the Keselgamu Oya reserve.
All three suspects are residents of the Mora Estate, aged 23, 39 and 42. They were handed over to the Bogawantalawa Police and released on police bail. Legal proceedings will follow in the Hatton Magistrate’s Court, police said.
The image published with the report shows two woven gem-washing sieves and a digging tool laid out on the ground at a police station, alongside a stock photograph of a handcuffed suspect.
Why the location matters
Castlereagh is one of the reservoirs in the Laxapana hydropower complex, and its catchment sits in an area currently under pressure from weather. On Tuesday morning, engineers reported the reservoir standing four feet below spill level and rising fast, with red landslide warnings issued across divisions in the Nuwara Eliya and Kandy districts. Schools in the Nuwara Eliya and Hatton zones were left to their principals to open or close because of the same conditions.
Unlicensed gem pitting remains a recurring enforcement target nationally. In July, 25 people were arrested over illegal gem mining in Horana.
Not reported
Hiru does not say what equipment was seized or in what quantity, how long the operation had been running, whether any gems were recovered, or what charges the three will face. It also does not say whether the estate management was aware of the digging, or whether the National Gem and Jewellery Authority was involved in the raid.
