Daylight reserve forest land robbery in the guise of parceling out Devalagam property

By Ifham Nizam

Out of the estimated 50,000 acres in the Balangoda Soragune Reserve Forest 6,245 have been parceled out to influential businessmen and politicians, claiming them to be under Devalagam Lands, leading environmentalists alleged.Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) Executive Director, Dilena Pathragoda told The Sunday Island that such lands belonging to both Ratnapura and Badulla districts are beingcleared to put up a golf course, build hotels and for cultivation of lucrative cash crops like high-demand pepper, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon etc.

According to Pathragoda such lands have been parceled into 100, 200, 300 and 1,000 acre blocks.He stressed that the respective Divisional Secretariat should prove that such demarcations are from the British period. “This would reveal how authorities had been turning a blind eye, while the daylight robbery is taking place with the connivance of government bureaucracy. We urge the Survey Department to intervene into the matter,” he said.

The areas under dispute come under the purview of the Haldummulla and Balangoda divisional secretariats. Research and Advocacy Policy Director Centre for Environmental Justice Janaka Withanage said that there is an urgent necessity to have sound policies by which present resources can be used to their maximum extent rather than blindly clearing forests to open up new lands for a few individuals to exploit.

He said that through CEJ intervention a Golf Course project was halted but the 628 areas were still under the ownership of the project. Withanage added that the necessity for more agricultural land is a fallacy adding that there is no shortage of farmland in Sri Lanka.Withnage said that former Minister John Seneviratne too has acquired acres of lands there.

When contacted, Seneviratne, a lawyer asserted that he was using Devale land for pepper cultivation.He said that there is nothing wrong in using such lands for the development of the country and he also pays a rent to the Devale.Scientist U.S. Weeratunga of the Udawalawe Elephant Research Project told The Sunday Island that the relevant forest area was important for elephants. It has been proven from experience and research that the elephants in Udawalawa National Park regularly moved throughout the year through that region.