Two honoured Sri Lankans and a disgraced deforester

Cassandra is delighted to hand out some bouquets today. It gladdens the heart to hear of others’ success in these times of dire trouble. She bases her stories this Friday on page 1 of The Sunday Island of November 15; one to jubilate over and two being stories which do not compliment the country or those in charge.

Dr Rohan Pethiyagoda honoured internationally

“Scientists find a new frog genus in Andamans, name it after a Sri Lankan taxonomist,” said the sub headline in the Sunday Island, also on page 1 of The Island on November 16. And who is this renowned man of science? Dr Rohan Pethiyagoda. Taxonomist is ‘a biologist who groups organisms into categories.’ The honour? A kind of tree frog discovered by a team led by Prof S D Bijup of Delhi University being named Rohanixalus. Yes, that is mighty recognition of one of our own. The first part of the new froggy’s name slips off the tongue which gets a mite patelified (tongue patalenawa) on the ixalus part. Cass and her readers heartily congratulate Dr Rohan Pethiyagoda on this sign of international recognition and honour. He competed with Indian biologists; meaning Indians are so pro-Indian and Prof Bijup could have been thus. Hence so much more the credit to Sri Lanka.

Cass of course would have preferred an exotic butterfly or a darting darling squirrel being named after Rohan; say – Papilionidae rohan or in the latter case – Ratufa petha. But never mind. Frogs too are living beings and these creatures had already brought fame to this outstanding but so modestly demeanoured biologist. He already has lent his name to other discovered creatures by him and his teams: a species of spider named Ononastur pethiyagoda; lizard – Caloates pethiyagoda; fish – Dawkinsia rohan, companion to another discovered fish species named by Rohan and his team for scientist/ writer Richard Dawkins.

Cass has her roots in Kandy, though now she assumes fake Trojan identity. A long ago friend elucidated her on the friend’s family name – Pethiyagoda – and said it originated in an act of a king of the Kandyan Kingdom throwing a pethiya (fish) across some area of land and gifting the acreage to his head archer – Dunukara Mudiyanse. So animals are important, so to speak as are plants, for there is botanist – Dr Upatissa of the same surname and Rohan’s father was connected to tea being one of the first Sri Lankan upcountry tea, planters ending up manager. So a big bouquet to you, Dr Rohan Pethiyagoda. You have brought honour to our country.

Medical doctor

An email authored by Tissa Wijeratne MD gives his story of starting life in the village of Kirioruwa, Bandarawela, as he says in ’the jungle’. He entered the Medical Faculty, University of Peradeniya, in 1987, but JVP riots stymied his studies and so he took to journalism and writing poetry. When universities reopened he had to decide between the two career courses and stayed true to his doctor ambition. Meeting a Sri Lankan medical person living in Australia, he married her and moved Down Under. He writes: “I am now the director of stroke services, neuroscience research unit, director of academic affairs, and director of international affairs at a leading public health service and a leading academic institution in Melbourne, Australia. I have just been appointed to Chair of the Department of Neurology at Western Health in Australia to promote better brain health through my leadership.” He visited his home country often and shared his knowledge and expertise. So this too is a wonderful story and warms the heart. There are so very many more Sri Lankan expats with success stories like these. They are the true patriots of Sri Lanka.

We need them to sustain our morale when we have a Health Minister who resorts to the occult prescribed by a supposedly doctor White, as reported, instead of relying on genuine medical specialists to counter the pandemic running to epidemic spread. She too has earned many names: Colomba Pavitradevi leading down from the greatly revered Viharamanadevi of Kelaniya and Ruhuna. She was even dubbed Ganga Devi and Umma Devi, Cass was told, the latter after kissing the first Covid-19 patient – Chinese. She has been well and truly lampooned for her ludicrous act of pot throwing.

Dire cruelty to forests and thus wild animals

Against such two greats mentioned above is this headline: “New directive sidelining Forest Dept, will place 690,000 ha of forest in jeopardy: environmentalists, scientists and animal lovers protest.” “Govt destroying 500,000 hectares of forests” says Harsha de Silva. His is a voice to be listened to. “These forests are known as remnant forests but they range from tens of thousands of acres of rich biodiversity forests to small ecosystems.” These forested lands have been removed from the Forest Department and placed under alternate systems, and are being cleared for village cultivation.

Why on earth cannot the mighty powers-that-be see how reforestation goes on apace? No need to quote figures to show that forest coverage in our country has dwindled rapidly to less than 20%. How stupid to even bird-brained Cass seems the idea of cutting down trees and growing vegetables. She thought chena cultivation was OUTlawed. Lands under village cultivation must be exploited more fully and reforestation forced by law since encouragement falls on totally deaf ears of exploitative mudalalis, encouraged by politicians, invading the few extant forests with tractor and chain saw. Money-grabbing over the good of the land, people and animals. Haven’t the powerful heard and seen the plight of our pachyderms thrown out of their traditional areas and corridors by expanding villagers? Hasn’t even this screeching pandemic taught people that money is not everything. Those who earned illegally cannot use their stored stacks of wealth to travel, race cars, splurge etc., with restrictions cramping their greedy extravaganze.

And then that slight silver lining: “Senior lawyer asks AG to prosecute Bathiudeen for destroying Kallaru forest”. (Lawyer Ravindranath Dabare). It has been done. “Appeal Court orders Bathiudeen to bear cost of restoring Kallaru forest”. (The Island 17/11). Due punishment has been such a long time a-coming. The votes he could muster protected this man, even proved to have links with some of the April 21, 2029 terrorist murderers. At last he is cornered and we plebs cheer heartily. He can easily pay the 2 to 3 billion needed to reforest the area. But will he? Further punishment is needed for this criminal destroyer of our forests; and others like him.