A telling message

Friday 25th December 2020

We are inundated with Christmas message year in, year out, and most of them are mere prosaic statements full of what is already known to one and all, and hardly leave us enlightened or inspired. The same is true of the surfeit of messages issued on other religious occasions as well. But there has been what we consider an unofficial yet telling Christmas message which is worthy of public attention. It came from His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, a couple of days ago. He delivered it to the government through Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena when the latter paid a courtesy call on the former in view of Christmas.

The Cardinal stressed, among other things, the need for the government to protect the country’s forest cover and, thereby, preserve its precious water resources, which, he said, would be scarce in time to come. Dinesh is in no way responsible for deforestation or any other form of environmental degradation; we do not think he has even cut down a tree branch. However, we hope that the Cardinal’s message has reached the government through either Dinesh or the media.

A report in this newspaper yesterday quoted Minister of Highways Johnston Fernando as having said he had held discussions with a group of US diplomats over the extension of the Marine Drive, which skirts the US Embassy premises in Colombo 03. The US diplomats’ concerns should be addressed and an assurance given to them that their security will not be jeopardised. But the government does not care to have talks with other stakeholders to discuss their concerns when roads happen to be built through ecologically sensitive areas; it turns hostile towards the environmentalists who protest, declares them a nuisance and bulldozes its way through.

The JVP has recently revealed, in Parliament, that there have been significant declines in the ground water levels in all parts of the country. (It is doubtful whether the government took any notice of the JVP’s statement.) This situation cannot be entirely attributed to the ill-effects of the Climate Emergency, which is bound to visit far worse things on us. There is a correlation between deforestation and receding the ground water levels. Hence the need to protect forests at all cost.

One of the worst instances of deforestation in recent history of this country was the clearing of a section of the Kallaru forest reserve in Mannar. What action has the Forest Department taken so far in response to the Appeal Court judgment in a case filed by the Centre for Environmental Justice against SJB MP Rishad Bathiudeen over the forest clearing at issue? The court ordered that the deforested areas be reforested urgently and the entire cost of the project recovered from Bathiudeen. This judicial gavel blow has sent a chill down the spines of the other destroyers of forests, and everyone is watching the Forest Department. Sadly, some Forest Officers were found clearing a forested eyot in the Bentara Ganga a few weeks ago. The excuse they gave for destroying tall trees and mangroves there was that they were going to launch a tree planting campaign there!

Environmental conservation and religion go hand in hand. As the UN Environment Programme has rightly pointed out, all religions acknowledge the need for environmental stewardship and urge their adherent to be caretakers of Earth and its biodiversity. They want us to be at one with nature. It is heartening that the Archbishop of Colombo remains focused on the need to protect the environment amidst a plethora of other problems. We can only hope that all religious dignitaries will emulate him and keep the rulers reminded of the need for environmental conservation.

We wish our readers a merry Christmas!