A 450-year-old Baobab park on Mannar Island

The only concentration of Baobab trees, numbering over 40 trees, are found as a clump on the northern face of Mannar island, including a few others scattered on the island and one near the Manthai fortress, now occupied by a temple. This collection of Baobab trees is evidence of a centuries old Arab settlement.

The Arab traders, have been known to break journey at critical points, to rest and or to take in water, as they travelled across the great ocean with the help of the astrolabe, a unique guiding device, as recorded in the earliest sea farers chronicles. One such point of rest was the northern face of the Mannar Island, that included a small bay. This location was accessed through the important approach channel between the main land and the Mannar Island during the south west monsoon, permitting a clear passage into the Bay of Bengal. This became a safe resting place during the south west monsoon with easy access for trade with the east coast of the Sub-continent and prior to the Chola invasions with the great emporium at Mantota. At the commencement of the north east monsoon these traders would slip back through the channel into the Arabian Sea and return back to their homes.

The Baobab (adasonia digitate) is a broad trunked tropical tree, known to grow in east Africa, and common in Tanzania. The Fruit of the Baobab has an edible acidic fruit enclosed in a stringy case resembling a gourd. The outer case of the gourd was used to make rope. This fruit was collected in east Africa and shipped to the Arab traders in Persia, Yemen and Oman who had a need for them. These Arab traders are known to have carried the fruit of the Baobab tree, on board their ships, a fruit that is high in vitamin “C” as a precautionary supplement against scurvy, a disease very common amongst sailors undertaking long sea journeys.

This unique concentrated collection of Baobab trees establishes and proves beyond any doubt that the area supported a large Arab settlement. Some of the seeds of the slow growing Baobab took root, creating the valuable collection of trees. This rare collection of trees should be preserved and protected. The minim age of the trees is over 450 years, some even centuries older, as they all preceded the arrival of the Portuguese into that area. The trade rivalry between the Portuguese and the Arabs would have destabilised and closed down the existence of the Arab settlement even prior to the establishing of the Portuguese fort in 1560, as the religious conversions of the people of the Mannar Island may have commenced even much earlier. .

The future Sri Lankan generations deserve access to the protected and preserved unique collection of Baobab trees, as concrete evidence of the important role, that Sri Lanka located at the centre of great ocean, played in international trade. The Department of Archaeology should be encouraged to establish the morphology of the original Arab settlement and the unique collection of Baobab trees should be protected and recorded by gazette notification, under the Archaeological Ordinance, the Department of Wildlife conservation, Department of Forests and the Department of National Botanical Gardens to create and protect this Internationally important National Baobab Park.