Another land grab about to take place at Flood Plains National Park today?

By Ifham Nizam

There was a plan to clear a swath of the Manampitiya-Yakkure forest for road development through the Flood Plains National Park and some local politicians were going all out to fell trees, a senior official of the Department of Wildlife Conservation said yesterday.

Senior environmentalists also told The Island that they hoped President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would intervene to prevent the destruction of the forest.

President Rajapaksa over the weekend refused to endorse the request for cleaning a three- kilometre stretch of forest to construct a road, saying he would consult a team of experts first.

Centre for Environmental Justice, Environmental Scientist, Hemantha Withanage alleged that with the introduction of 1/2020 circular nearly 700,000 acres of forests had become vulnerable.

“When Forest and Wildlife officers visit these areas, they are helpless. They have been forced not to enforce the laws and even remove long standing cases,” Withanage added.

“We got to know that the Secretary to the State Minister of Land Management, State Enterprises Land, and Property Development was to go for a site visit yesterday and a meeting would be held today (09) at Yakkure and a decision would be made to allow road development inside the National Park,” a senior environmentalist claimed.

Further, the lands belong to Flood Plains National Park at Weheragodayaya running to more than 2000 acres would be released for agriculture purposes, said Supun Lahiru Prakash, Convener, Biodiversity Conservation and Research Circle of Sri Lanka.

He told The Island that “In addition Handapan villu, Manampitiya villu, Palle villu, Karapola villu, and Muthugala villu are to be released for agriculture purposes.”

Loss of huge amounts of land from the Flood Plains National Park and Fragmentation of the rest of the land by road construction would severely affect the flora and fauna of the park, Prakash said.

The flood plains are a unique ecosystem type found in downstream Mahaweli River; they will disappear, if the decision is made to expand agriculture, environmentalists warn.

“We kindly request the President to pay immediate attention to the matter and prevent the destruction of the forest.

According to environmental lawyer, Dr. Jagath Gunawardena, the area was declared a National Park under Section 2, subsection 1 of the Flora and Fauna Protection Ordinance (FFPO).

Therefore, nobody could make any forest clearings, clear or break up any land for cultivation, mining or any other purposes, fell, girdle, tap, burn or in any way damage or destroy any plant or take, collect or remove any plant, Gunawardena said.

There are clear violations set out in Sections 5 and 6. If Section 6 is violated, a perpetrator could be arrested without a warrant, and it was a non-bailable offence, he said.

Public Service Trade Union Federation, Chairman W. H. Piyadasa said that the Forest Department had taken over the land on court orders after reporting the construction of an illegal road from Manepitiya to Yakkure through the Polonnaruwa Flood Plain National Park and the illegal cultivation in the wildlife reserve.