Deforestation To Bring Imminent Catastrophe In Sri Lanka

by Hafsa Sabry (Sunday leader 2016.02.21)
Some of the land in the country were sold out or were leased to the foreign investors for development projects during the Rajapaksa regime. Without a change, the same procedure is being continued under the new government as well, and as a result, the percentage of the country’s forest area has been vastly reduced.
Forests area provides vital organic infrastructure for some of the country’s most diverse collections of life. It supports countless species of the wild and water as well as the human livelihood. Nevertheless, humans are responsible for acres and acres of deforestation of the island.
According to the survey conducted by the Global Forest Assessment, the deforestation level in Sri Lanka is now at the fourth place when compared it with the countries that destroy primary forest. Sri Lanka will become the first in this regard if private companies are being given land in this way in the future, claim environmentalists.
It was revealed in the research conducted by Ravindra Kariyawasam, Ven. Wekadawewa Rahula Thera, and Professor Rajesh Goyal at Desh Bhagat university, India that at present, of the land area of 65,525 sq. km in the country, 83.5 per cent is already taken for tea, coconut and rubber cultivation, construction of towns, human settlements and other crop cultivations. The remaining forest land area takes only 16.55 per cent.
Deforestation in Sri Lanka started in the colonial period in order to develop commercial agriculture. The government established plywood companies and other timber entities that heavily resulted in deforestation, especially in the wet zone. When compared to that era, Sri Lanka now boasts a threefold increase in population which resulted in a very high demand for development project such as housing and commercial agriculture which in turn accelerated deforestation.
Sri Lanka’s natural forest cover has dwindled from 80 per cent to less than 60 per cent over the last 100 years. At the end of the 19th century, forest area of the country covered more than 80 per cent of its land. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was 70 per cent. As we moved into the 21st century, the threat to natural forest persists unabated.
The unsustainable development activities planned to be implemented up to 2030 will lead to extinction of valuable flora and fauna species in the country. Even at present, Sri Lanka is considered one of 24 biodiversity hotspots in the world threatened with extinction, the Director of Center for Environment and Nature Studies (CENS) and Environmentalist Ravindra Kariyawasam stressed.
With the ongoing large scale deforestation, the forest areas in the country will reduce to 10 per cent. Ground water levels in the forests will deplete and rivers will go dry. It has been identified, 103 rivers will become dead rivers as in the case of Maguru Oya which is almost dried by now.
Nevertheless, it will also be required to confine animals to limited blocks of forest lands (around 50 sq. km in extent) as the National Elephant Management Perspective of 2009 has proposed. The elephants that escape from the areas by breaking the electric fences will be classified as dangerous animals and will be sold out to individuals under the proposed programme. This will completely harm the natural habitats of the Sri Lankan wild elephants intensifying human-elephant conflict.
In 2011, around 65,000 acres of land was given to the Dole Multinational Company and CIC Company from the reserved forest areas in the country for banana cultivation. If this will be continued, the percentage value of the existing forest area will reduce below 10 per cent very soon.“As a result of excessive use of agrochemicals by companies like Dole for growing crops such as Cavendish banana, soil and water resources got polluted hitherto unknown scale damaging biodiversity and water quality. This situation can now be better understood by studying areas under Cavendish cultivation,” said Kariyawasam.
The agricultural development projects including paddy and commercial crop cultivations that companies carry out clearing forest reserves are profit oriented, and they rarely take into account harm that they cause to environment.
After 1970, the massive development scheme ‘the Mahaweli irrigation project’ was implemented in order to irrigate the dry zone in the north east to make these lands more suitable for agriculture, especially for growing rice. This project caused much damaged to jungle areas.
According to Kariyawasam, under the commercial agricultural projects, in 2011 both Dole and CIC companies had deforested 65525 sq. of forest area in the regions of Buttala, Lunugamwehera, Somawathiya National Park, and Chunnakkadu Sanctuary.
Both companies were involved in cultivating Cavendish bananas. This situation badly impacted on the forest land and bio diversity in Sri Lanka, said Kariyawasam.
According to CENS, Road Development projects were under construction through Sinharaja World heritage Site area to Suriyakanada and from Lankagama to Deniyaya.
According to the survey conducted by the World Food and Agriculture Organization (WFAO), Sri Lanka clears its forest area by 1 per cent every year. Countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Singapore are also in this category. Percentage value of available forest area in 2012 is around 16.5 and by 2030, this will be further reduced to 13% – 10% with the decrease of forests due to the implementation of industrialization and development of large scale projects.

Forest Department

Director General of Forest Department Anura Sathurusinghe told The Sunday Leader that villagers had occupied and cultivated the forest areas in question illegally several years back. They carried out these illegal activities even before the lands were declared as forest covers. He said that the companies had taken the lands from the villagers.
“There is a court case pending in this regard. However, since the company has vastly cultivated the area. We are unable to reclaim the entire area of lands, but we will request for compensation to ensure that they consider the forest covers of the country before cultivating forest lands,” he said.

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