Hands off Sinharaja

It makes one sad, angry and puzzled. How could anyone, even with an iota of love for the country of one’s birth, who has been breathing its air ever since, bring oneself to do this? It is despicable. It is a heinous crime of immense proportions, an unthinkable instance of rape of Mother Lanka.

It seems that some of these half-wits wearing immaculate white, wielding political might cannot go to sleep without hearing the sounds of music (to them) playing in their minds: of trees falling, of bulldozers/caterpillars digging, and gnawing at soil that had been there undisturbed for millennia, while the surrounding forest or whatever is left of it wept in silence.

No matter whether it is Wilpaththuwa or Sinharaja or anywhere else, the story is the same: ‘they come, they see, they destroy, they make a huge profit and they go.’ How else can it be? They are just paying back to whomever they owe for the services (both in matter and money, of course) rendered during the election campaign, by robbing the land of their birth, while making sure that there will be enough for themselves too.

And this despicable political drama has continued for decades. The newcomers or many of them think it’s all theirs now. They take it for granted that everything under the sun of Lanka is for them, for the taking. Forests and rivers sit at the top of the list, amongst the most attractive, in terms of their personal returns and revenue.

Sinharaja, a world heritage site, has become the prime target once again. It escaped destruction in 2013, when some concerned environmentalists stepped in and lodged a complaint at the UNESCO World Heritage Site office, which stopped an intended road construction project that would have caused great harm to the forest.

Now, it seems to have started all over again. Even before the victorious finished their celebrations, one of the new custodians of the ‘Land of Lanka’ seemed to have decided to finish the unfinished job, which started in 2013. Fortunately, our new president, who, I am sure, is a people-listener and a people’s pulse-reader too, heard the uproar that has been on all papers and social media, intervened and stopped it. Even though the news reports say temporarily, I am sure he will stop this madness of politicians’ playing with our natural habitats, once and for all.

It is interesting to note whether these villagers are planning to drive motor cars on this patch of footpath, which now supposedly needs extension and widening. Or could there be another more attractive motive, such as facilitating vehicular traffic to something at the other end of the road, cutting through the ‘induction zone’ of the forest?

This is an extremely sad state of affairs. Our politicians taking turns to wreak havoc on our natural habitats and what not, at will. Quite often the damage caused to the environment by their actions is irreparable. And yet, they still get away scot-free.

The story so far “While the top order was busy with bigger affairs, the middle order was busy cutting and digging our forests and rivers, in that order. And the tail-enders at the bottom waited for the crumbs”.

I sincerely hope the new president would take timely action to end this sad story, never to be repeated again.

LAKSIRI WARNAKULA