Any government that comes into power is a caretaker – of its people, environment and security. This is another glaring occasion where their lack of knowledge, or blatant disregard to the environment is causing long-lasting damage to this country.

After the devastation of the tsunami, then governments took the initiative to raise natural protection of the island by undertaking massive projects to plant mangroves. It was a long-term project, spanning 20 years, by the armed forces, to get these barriers up. Now the same army is used by this government to chop down these mangroves!!

This is happening right now in the Trincomalee lagoon. Nearly 40 lorry loads of mangrove forest have been taken away already. The excuse used for this is dengue control, a circular issued by the presidential secretariat in June. The ignorance is here; the seawater mixed lagoon does NOT breed mosquitoes. Trincomalee does not pop up in the dengue demographics, even as a high risk area. Yes, there is garbage, and plastic thrown into the mangroves that can be breeding grounds for mosquitoes. These can be cleared away in a clean-up operations, without harming the mangrove trees. It has been done a few times before, by previous government authorities, like coast conservation, who know the value of the mangrove belts. The local rumour becomes believable, that this deplorable act is done to please some local business partners of the area who run pleasure boats in the lagoon.

Yes, unhealthy mangroves can breed mosquitoes. But mangroves are ‘decease swamps’ is a dangerous myth. That mangroves are dirty, stagnant swamps teeming with decease carrying mosquitoes is a misconception that promotes harmful policies to control dengue outbreaks. This top myth justifies the illegal coastal clearance today in Trincomalee. It is destroying an important ecological asset of this country, mangroves, while failing to address the true root of dengue transmission. Where is the coast conservation department in this situ? Have they got CCD permission to carry out this butchery?

Healthy mangroves do not breed dengue mosquitoes, especially the one’s closely connected to the sea like in Trincomalee. The larvae needs completely still unmoving water to breathe at the surface, and mature. The power of tidal flushing which keeps water circulating in the mangroves makes this impossible. Also the daily ebb and flow of ocean tides keeps the water moving in the mangroves and frequently drains the forest floor. The natural hydrology of healthy mangroves, acts as an automatic self-regulating barrier against stagnant water collection, making viable breeding sites virtually impossible.

Also mangroves contain nature’s exterminators. It hosts a massive army of mosquito predators. These mangroves are not dead swamps but vibrant nurseries. Young Fish, dragon flies, crusteasians, and insectivorous birds are natural mosquito predators. Clearing mangroves collapses this natural food web, removing this natural pest control.

In fact, clearing mangroves is counterproductive and will backfire with worsened dengue cases. The heavy machinery will leave a scarred landscape with deep tyre tracks in the marshy soil making stagnant water pools and disrupted drainage. When rainwater fills these artificial depressions it will create perfect stagnant, predator free, fresh water pools, Ideal breeding grounds for Aedes aegypti. Also clearing this kind of buffers can bring in the urban sprawl with its people, housing, and garbage, to the new degraded land.

The collateral damage is even bigger. Destroying mangroves in the name of pest control leaves coastal populations poorer, hungrier, and highly vulnerable to extreme weather. One would have thought at least the people in the coast conservation department were knowledgeable enough about the loss of wave attenuation with removal of mangroves and the risk of flooding and storm surge damages to the coastal areas. Collapse of these fish nurseries should ring alarm bells in the fisheries department. Reduced fish harvest and loss of livelihood for the local fishermen should have had fisheries department people rushing to the site. But neither of the mentioned government departments have raised a murmur, in the face of political influence. This is the sad truth of the country at the moment. Sri Lanka’s climate resilience has been compromised by release of stored ‘blue carbon’ and a loss of natural buffer against rising sea levels, while the responsible people in the government are silent in front of an ignorant political hierarchy.

This is an appeal to the highest authority in the country to stop this environmentally insensitive projects of this nature being coughed up by ignorant municipal members. Clearing these forests directly violates so many policies on conservation. Our local fishermen depend entirely on healthy mangrove root systems—such as those being chopped down. From a health perspective, medical professionals have repeatedly assured us that under the current National Policy Framework, marshy lands and mangrove ecosystems pose no threat of dengue. We request your guidance and intervention to ensure our environment is not sacrificed.

Citizen S

In planning a long trip to Sri Lanka from the UK, I was disappointed to see different hotel pricing for foreign visitors when compared to local rates. Like many travellers, I prefer to book directly with hotels, rather than international hotel consolidators, as more money goes to local businesses. But the assumption that foreigners should pay more is simply distasteful. As such, I’ve chosen another long-haul destination that does not follow such practices, and hope that Sri Lanka will change its approach to overseas visitors in the near future.

Neil Roskilly Wetherlee UK

We are living in ‘Trump times’ characterised by never ending craziness but it is not confined to the USA alone. I will come to our part of the world later. As a large part is due to Trump, perhaps, normalcy may return when he ends his second term on 20th January 2029, at 12.00PM Eastern Standard Time. We cannot be sure of that either because the ‘Great man’ may decide to govern the world for ever, after having purchased Greenland and forcing Canada to be the 51st state of the US!

Trump had an unprecedented opportunity, being only the second to be elected to a non-consecutive second term as the US President, the other being Grover Cleveland at the tail end of the nineteenth century. If only he kept to his campaign promises, his name would have been written in history in golden letters but the complete transformation, following the election, is likely to make his name go down as one of the craziest!

It is a moot point whether even Trump knows what he is going to do that day, when he wakes up, considering the illogicality of some actions, best illustrated by the ad-hoc imposition of tariffs without any discussions or negotiations. The adverse effects of these, to the world economy, is yet to be seen compounded, of course, by the continuing war with Iran. He promised to be a ‘Peace-maker’ but turns out to be a war-monger, like many of his predecessors! His excuse was that he went to war because he was denied the Nobel Peace Prize.

Well, he got the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino, another shameless leader who is ruining the ‘Beautiful Game’. When a US team member was given the red-card, Trump, who claims to know better than referees, decided it was not so, with a successful appeal to Infantino. During the next World Cup match, Belgium, supercharged with this injustice, thrashed the USA team 4-1.

Even the Semiquincentennial celebration of the US was not about the country but about himself! In fact, a cynic may point out that most of what the US has left behind, over the 250 years, is death and destruction. Paradoxically, whilst fighting a war with Iran to prevent it acquiring nuclear capabilities, the US is the only country to have dropped Atom Bombs, not one but two. Even though Japan was on the verge of admitting defeat, ‘Little Boy’, a uranium-based bomb, was dropped over Hiroshima on 6th August, 1945. Not giving time for Japan even to consider surrender, the second ‘Fat Man’, a plutonium implosion bomb, was dropped over Nagasaki, just three days later. Why did the US drop two A-bombs in rapid succession? It was to test the two different types of bombs they had.

Over the past 250 years, the US has started wars in many countries and, in most instances, lost leaving behind a trail of devastation and destruction. In spite of all that, it is continuing its war with Iran, a war that was started with false intelligence supplied by the war-monger Netanyahu who predicted the instantaneous fall of the Clerical regime in Iran. This war has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Iran, as it realised the economic value of the Strait of Hormuz. The language Trump uses in reference to Iran is despicable. What sane person, nay a world leader, refers to flattening of a country and erasure of a civilisation?

Back in Sri Lanka, we know that most of our modern-day politicians are also self-serving. They are also very good at amassing wealth, when in power, just like the Trump family had done. However, what is of concern is the rapid decline in the standards of some vital professional classes. Special reference has to be made to the Attorney-General’s Department. Perhaps, the present holder is a decent man but some of his predecessors brought the high position into disrepute.

Dappula Livera allegedly concocted a conspiracy theory about the Easter Sunday terror mastermind as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa denied him an extension in service as the Attorney General. If he has any information about such a conspiracy, it is his bounden duty to come out with facts but has not done so.

A remark recently made by Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Pieris about gallantry medals awarded to military personnel is said to have caused an affront to the dignity of Air Force officer Shantha Jayathilleke, who has received the highest decoration awarded to a living officer and sought to represent the interests of former Director of State Intelligence Service Maj. Gen. (retd.) Suresh Sallay as permitted by the Penal Code.

When political leaders and professionals holding high office behave in this manner, is there any hope for the nation?

By Dr. Upul Wijayawardhana