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| Sunday, 28 March 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Sinharaja under siege Recent charges that certain politicians were about to parcel out bits of the Sinharaja Forest have drawn attention to the condition of what is the country's sole remaining stretch of primeval forest cover, world famous for its precious reservoir of tropical biodiversity, but ever-threatened and coveted for human exploitation.
Ms. Wilson has re-submitted the same article since she feels that today, 32 years later, the Sinharaja yet remains under the same threat of extinction. For thousands of years the Sinharaja forest has guarded some of our waterways and an undiscovered wealth of botanical and natural history. In it great trees found on where else in Ceylon spread a complexity of roots holding the soil of the steep hillside together. Under these trees grow smaller ones; and under them again an intricate pattern of still smaller growth, all part of the ecosystem of our one and only true rain forest. It is dark and quiet here. Pythonic lianas twist between the grand old trees; speckled and tangerine coloured fungi the size of dinner plates jut from the gnarled roots, here are strange flowers, plants and ferns, many un-named; many indeed, unknown. Exactly which creatures move in these silent forests has never been fully assessed; for this is comparatively unknown terrain - a vast laboratory only waiting to be explored. When night falls in the forest moths a foot across flit through the trees. I have seen them the colour of eaude-nil, and a shimmering light fawn with great topaz eyes on their beffurred wings. How long will they, the strange plants and other creatures of these forests remain? Already, unless something can be done, their fate seems to hang in the balance. Soon the exploitation of the Sinharaja forest will begin. The silent lands will reverberate with the rasp of bulldozers and saws; there will be the scream of giant trees crashing down the hill-sides carrying with them countless other smaller trees that were all part of the Sinharaja's complex ecological system: the small creatures who were part of this well balanced design of nature will in time vanish too. Other trees may be grown: or may be secondary growth will take over-as it has done in our other forests - but things will never be the same again. The closely matted root system and the carpet of fallen leaves will disappear; the hot sun and the winds will sweep over what was once forest: monsoon rains will denude the hillsides of its top soil. Let us take stock of the situation. This is no sentimental cry of the protectionist, but a realistic approach to a very real problem. Plywood, it is accepted, may be a necessity, but so, too is protection of at least a section the Sinharaja forest. Let us see what the experts, the agronomists and the botanists, have to say on this subject. In 1968, Mr. T. Hoffmann, President of the Wildlife Protection Society of Ceylon, wrote, "We are concerned with the urgent need for the protection of non-renewable land and irreplaceable national assets which can be put to no other use than to keep them intact and protected at all times. It has been observed that particularly during the last few years, forests have been cleared and destroyed and devastated in regions where their presence is of utter necessity for the present and future well-being of the nation; also their destruction can bring no benefit to individuals or the people of Ceylon". When he wrote Uva was experiencing the worst drought in living memory, with lack of water not only for agricultural pursuits, but even human consumption. A similar situation existed only six months earlier on the normally wet western slopes of the main hill range. He wrote, "Due to indiscriminate felling of forests on the mountain slopes and peaks and in steep ravines, these periodic drought conditions are becoming more severe from year to year, and we can foresee a time when these climatic changes will not only affect the productivity of the country's tea industry but the actual living conditions of millions of Ceylonese. "Hundreds and thousands of springs and water courses have dried out permanently in recent years due to the unchecked wanton activity of squatters, land grabbers, timber and firewood profiteers... The hilltops and mountain forests are disappearing rapidly in places where they form the only useful vegetation; by removing them not only do springs dry out, but the soil is lost, the humidity of the air is decreased and the balance of nature irrevocably disturbed. "Drinking water is already becoming scarce in many upcountry districts, and its quality is deteriorating rapidly. It is only a matter of time before this condition spreads to the mid country and low country areas.... The low country streams and rivers originate in the hills and mountains, and with the progressive destruction of mountain forests, the supply of water in these rivers will dwindle during the dry weather: the entire dry zone irrigation system will eventually be affected, not only because the silting of reservoirs but because of the gradual drying up of water supplies from forest reserves in the mountains. These are the warning signs." - (Loris Vol. XI No. 4. December 1968. "A plea for Orderly Land Use in Ceylon" by T. W. Hoffmann). Is it too late to beg the authorities to save as much as possible of the Sinharaja for posterity's sake? The plywood factories are already an establish fact. The machinery is ready. But it is not only timber extraction that is denuding the grand old forest. Walk deeply into it and you will find literally thousands of pits dug by illicit gemmers, specially along the sides of streams. Here, too, the balance of nature has been interfered with, for the root systems of trees have been exposed and the trees slowly rot and die. Squatters, too have invaded the Sinharaja. Is there nothing that can be done? Or are we of the present to be remembered by future generations to come as the total decimators of one of Ceylon's most important and greatest natural heritages?" A Forest Department man summed up the urgency of the situation to me recently. "With the going of the Sinharaja Ceylon's climate and rainfall may be affected forever." What can be done? Even now, much is possible. First, while there is yet time let us strive to save as much as we can of the Sinharaja by a re-assessment of plans. Secondly, let there be a Sinharaja National Park and Arboretum: a quiet sanctuary of reasonable size its ecosystem totally untouched by man, where university and other students can undertake research which will be of immeasurable value where the people of this country and tourists can escape from the turmoil of busy city life. Wilpattu, and Yala in particular, are proving their increasing popularity and are fast becoming overcrowded. A wet-zone, high-montane park in the Sinharaja could readily absorb the overflow. May I repeat for the urgency of this cannot be underestimated, let us make haste to save as much as possible of the Sinharaja and its protective cover of some of our watercourses. Let us speedily establish a Wet Zone National Park and Arboretum where at least one section of our grandest forest, protected by ancient edicts from time immemorial is kept in its primeval states, before it is too late. It rests with us, for much can still be done. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Christine Wilson, environmentalist and daughter of the late Dr. R. L.
Spittel, world renowned for his forest exploration work with the tiny,
besieged Veddah community, first published the following article by her
headlined "Save the Sinharaja Forest" in the Ceylon Observer
Weekender of February 20, 1972.
