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| Sunday, 17 March 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Freedom of birds or livelihood? by Neomi Kodikara
Ma-Eliya is a hamlet located approximately 17 kilometres away from Colombo, in the interior of Ja-Ela. The residents of this village have an indeed strange livelihood. They live on their skill of capturing birds. By netting species of sparrows, parakeets, myna and selling them to devotees at temples and kovils to be released on vows, around 70 families make their living. A stream that flows parallel to this hamlet mark a stretch of paddy fields which sustains an abundance of ripening paddy, a haven for birds. The villagers have been engaged in the trade not just for a year or two but for over 100 years, they say. It is the family trade that was transferred to them from their ancestors. They have continued in their trade until last January 28 when the Department of Wildlife Conservation decided to re-enforce section 31 of the 1993 No. 49 Amendment to the Flora and Fauna Protection Ordinance and ban these people from their anti-wildlife occupation.
Livelihood of nearly 500 families in the Gampaha district, including the entire village of Ma-Eliya, has become disrupted. These people are helpless, not knowing what to do after they have been deprived of their trade which had been their only livelihood for 105 years. The first house of the Ma-eliya village is Antony Seram's. Several cages are hanging around his house, empty. Another is lying on the ground, with its sides covered with a gunny bag. In it there is a flock of sparrows, about 40 in number, packed in. In another cage about 50 parakeets are caged until buyers arrive. A day or two ago they were free, hovering, fluttering, flying in the vast blue sky chirping in delight, enjoying freedom to the heart's content, in their own paradise, a paddy field far-off. They have been caught and brought to Ma-Eliya; within another few days they would be released, at a temple or a kovil being subjected to a vow made by a man- 'life for a life'. Seram (48) is aggressive and restless. "I have been engaged in this trade for the past 30 years, this kind of turbulence never occurred. We do not engage in illegal business like drug dealing, robbery, killing for money. We have never asked the Government to provide us jobs, yet we are not given peace and freedom to carry out our customary trade. What are we to tell our children when they cry in hunger? Now it is already a month without any income...," he does not mince his words. H.P. Atula (30) took to bird catching when he was just 15. "I have sustained my family with two children and parents by capturing birds, when it is stopped, I do not know what to do, please tell the authorities to reconsider this and let us carry on our simple job..." his plea is a common entreaty of all other villagers. We learned that a villager who had been arrested with few birds had been fined Rs. 20,000 and due to his inability to pay the fine had been imprisoned. "I don't know what to tell my children when they ask for a little rice", said his wife, followed by two little girls of 8-10 years. "No boutique gives us a thing in debt any more, they are correct, how can we pay them without any income when our livelihood is lost?," she asks expecting an answer from us. Some villagers travel all over the country, capturing sparrows and parakeets from areas like Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Kandy, Kegalle, Meerigama etc. Then there are the middle men who buy these birds and sell to the vendors who take them to the temples and shops. The birds are sold to 200 shops all over the country and at many temples including Gangarama, Yakkala devala, Bellanvila, Navagamuwa and Kataragama. Dayanda Kariyawasam, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Department explains that killing, injuring, rearing, selling or exhibiting 31 types of indigenous birds have been banned. Licence is necessary for seven species; two kinds of crows, house sparrow, spotted munia, white-backed munia, weaver and rose-ringed parakeet. But imported species such as African love birds, Bergenian, pinchers are not prohibited. Domestic birds like fowls, swans, duck, geese, turkey are also not included in this list. The 31 species of endemic birds are spurfowl, junglefowl, wood pigeon, lorikeet, layard's parakeet, red-faced malkoha, green-billed coucal, chestnut- backed owlet, grey hornbill, coppersmith barbet, crimson-fronted barbet, black bulbul, yellow browed bulbul, arangaya, spot winged thrush, whitethroat, grey headed flycatcher, black-fronted babbler, orange billed babbler, ashy headed babbler, small flowerpecker, hill white eye, blue magpie, whiteheaded starling, Sri Lanka grackle, hill munia, yellow bird, bronze winged pigeon, myna, peafowl and heron. Many birds released on vows belong to non-protected species. Therefore people can obtain a licence from the authorities assuring that they will adhere to regulations of the Department- then they can proceed in their trade after registering in the Department, the Director said. "The traders have to follow several criteria that is not to violate the rules of Prevention of Animal Cruelty, by maintaining clean cages, avoid overcrowding and exposure to the harsh sun along roads". Kariyawasam agrees to grant them permission up to a certain extent if they adhere to the regulations of the Department. "It is true that lives of these poor people have been disrupted, yet we cannot allow the natural resources of the country to be devastated", he said. "As the law has not been enforced properly, capturing birds has developed to such an extent, employing hundreds, but we cannot allow them to be irresponsible", he said. According to religious rituals birds who are caged for a long period, who ought to be released but paradoxically, to meet the demand, birds are captured and sold overnight for vows. Kariyawasam entreats the public to have prudent thoughts about releasing birds on vows as it only leads to the loss of freedom of thousands of birds. "It is mostly the urban population- the educated and rational thinkers who engage in this. It is time for them to alter their attitude," he says. Jagath Gunawardane, an Attorney-at-Law and environmentalist appreciates the Department's decision saying it is timely and should be continued. He reveals that even though these birds are released, it is into a new environment where most of them fail to survive. He says that in capturing many birds are hurt and injured, some of the wounded are left to die. "Let them proceed in their trade only if the authorities are satisfied of their methods and handling of the birds," he says. |
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