News
Environmentalists welcome gazette on Hambantota Managed Elephant Reserve
By Ifham Nizam
The government’s initiative to gazette the much-discussed Hambantota Managed Elephant Reserve (MER) was lauded by environmentalists, who described the move as an important step to protect wildlife.
The government gazetted the Hambantota MER after a decade-long struggle to which the contribution of farmers’ organizations in Walsapugala helped in a big way to produce a positive outcome, researcher Supun Lahiru Prakash said.
He said the question of certain encroached areas being excluded in the gazette, and other processes needed to be worked out.
“There is an issue over the size of the gazetted MER in comparison with the size of the MER proposed in the Greater Hambantota Development Plan 2009. The gazette process of the MER could also be problematic. Removing the encroached lands from the MER and making them suitable for elephants is another challenge that the government has to deal with,” he stressed.
Around 70 per cent of elephant home ranges in Sri Lanka are outside protected areas. However, the authorities try to drive elephants into protected areas and fence them in order to mitigate the HEC, he further said.
The HEC escalation during the past decades clearly show that the method is completely unsuccessful. This attempt leads to increased aggression of elephants towards humans. Ultimately, Sri Lanka will end up as the country with the highest number of elephant deaths and the second highest in human deaths in the world, says Prakash, a researcher of the elephant studies in Sri Lanka.
“Elephants have a strong bond with their home ranges and it is not possible to remove them from their traditional grounds. If we try to do so through drives, only herds consisting of females and the young will be moved out, which will result in the remaining males continuing to cause trouble”, he explained.
This clearly shows that HEC mitigation does not help. On the other hand, herds driven to protected areas suffer due to lack of resources and die of starvation. This also reflects negatively on elephant conservation. That was why the MER concept was introduced to protect elephant home ranges outside the protected areas,” he noted.
The MER connects Udawalawa, Lunugamvehera and Bundala National Parks which are home to around 450 elephants. The idea was proposed in 2009 under the Gajamithuro Program launched by the Department of Wildlife Conservation.
Subsequently, the proposal was approved in 2012 at the Gajamithuro District Committee meeting. However, as there was no progress on the project since then, three elephant corridors were identified, but they have now been disrupted due to human activities, a department official said.
By Priyan de Silva
The Election Commission (ECSL) has opposed a move by the government to appoint representatives of the Chairpersons of the Regional Development Committee to monitor local government institutions.
ECSL Chairman Nimal G. Punchihewa told The Island that the government had informed the ECSL of its plan to appoint representatives of the Chairpersons of the Regional Development Committee to monitor the local government bodies and the ECSL had decided to write to the Ministry of Local Government opposing the move, he said. A Chairman of a regional development committee ESD a representative of a particular political party and it would be unfair by other parties for such appointments to be made, the EC Chairman said.
Punchihewa said that the administration of local government institutions could be done through Municipal Commissioners and Divisional Secretaries.Many political parties had complained against the government move, he said.
By Saman Indrajith
The JVP would file a fresh application before the Supreme Court against the government for not holding the local council polls, JVP MP Vijitha Herath said yesterday.Addressing the media at the party headquarters in Pelawatte, Herath said that his party had ascertained fresh information by invoking the Right to Information Act about the funds needed for the holding of the elections and his party would file another fundamental rights case against those responsible for conducting elections.
“The LG polls were to be held on 09 March. They were postponed until 25 April, and later they were put off indefinitely. The President appoints Governors to the provinces and the local councils are under them. Now, he says no party commands the support of 50 percent of voters.
Is this reason why he is not holding elections? His claim that there are no funds for elections is not acceptable. The Election Commission (EC) has, in a letter to the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, asked for Rs 1,100 million in installments for conducting local government elections. The Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, on 07 March, informed
the EC that the latter’s request had been referred to the Minister of Finance on the same day. But so far the money has not been released. As per a report released by the Treasury, the government revenue was Rs 177,900 million in January this year alone. Of that amount, Rs 156,760 was allocated to government institutions. The Treasury has Rs 21,410 million. In February, the government revenue was at Rs. 271,750 million and of that Rs. 208,620 million was spent. The balance was Rs 63,130 million. In January and February, the Treasury had Rs 84,270 million. These figures have been officially confirmed by a Deputy Treasury Secretary. The EC is seeking only Rs 2,460 million for elections. So, the claim that there is no money for elections is false as per official records. We will submit this information to the Supreme Court when we file a fresh application. We will prove that the government has lied to people,” Herath said.
SJB mayoral candidate for Colombo Municipal Council Mujibur Rahuman alleges that President Ranil Wickremeisnghe has violated election laws by appointing UNP’s mayoral candidate Rosy Senanayake as the Presidential Advisor on Local Government.
Participating in a talk show hosted by a private TV channel, Rahuman said that Senanayake was a candidate for the delayed local government polls. “She has submitted nominations for the Colombo Municipal Council from the UNP list. It is illegal to appoint a candidate to such a post pending an election. The local council polls have not yet been cancelled and cases pertaining to the holding of elections are in progress,” he said, adding that of all the posts the local government candidate had been given the post of Presidential Advisor on Local Governance.
“More than three months have lapsed since Senanayake stepped down from the Colombo Mayor post, but she is still occupying the Mayor’s Residence. The President says that he is implementing the system change demanded by people. The change he is actually doing is giving appointments to his cronies. Is it the change the people expected,” Rahuman queried.
EC opposes govt. move to appointment its henchmen to monitor local councils
JVP says govt. has enough funds for elections
Rosy’s appointment violative of election laws – Mujibur
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