Dedicated Assistant Conservator of Forests under fire for doing her job, allege environmentalists

by Ifham Nizam

Environmentalists yesterday lambasted a Wildlife Ministry move to hold an inquiry against an official who has stood for justice by preventing the destruction of a critically endangered Flora species.

There was nothing wrong with holding an inquiry against a government official, but targeting officers who stand up to politicians and their henchmen could not be tolerated, environmentalists said

“We will await the outcome of the disciplinary inquiry, and if there is anything serious when it comes to job security, we will fight for justice through legal means, Environmentalist Supun Lahiru Prakash said.

Assistant Conservator of Forests, Gampaha Division, Devanee Jayathilaka faces an inquiry for visiting a site just in time to prevent the workers from destroying the critically endangered level Crudia zeylanica on Sunday. The charge against her is that she has spoken to the media without permission.

“If I had not turned, the tree would be no more,” she said, adding that “the entire eco-system in the area had been destroyed by those who do not understand the importance of the environment,” Devanee told journalists.

Environmentalists have expressed opposition to a move to relocate the only surviving tree of the Sri Lankan Legume or Crudia zeylanica.

Scientists praised the Forest Officer for intervening to save the only surviving tree of the Sri Lankan Legume or Crudia zeylanica. It was rediscovered in a small plot of forest land located close to the Daraluwa Railway Station in Gampaha

The IUCN Red List of 2006 categorizes it as extinct, as does the National Red List of 2012.

It was known only from the herbarium specimens collected more than a century ago, and drawings, since there were no photographs of a living plant until its rediscovery in 2019 by three young research scientists.

The plant did not have a photograph till it was rediscovered; even Sri Lanka’s National Herbarium only had a sketch.