Govt-sponsored rape

Friday 5th February, 2021

Nothing seems to get done in this country without a presidential intervention. A collective of environmental groups has called upon President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to have the ongoing rape of the Dahaiyagala sanctuary stopped immediately. A large number of ruling party politicians and their henchmen are clearing swaths of forest inside the sanctuary purportedly for agricultural purposes, as we have reported. They have already caused irreparable damage to the forest, and at this rate, they are likely to obliterate the sanctuary before long unless they are stopped forthwith.

The present dispensation seems to have an antipathy towards anything green. Having driven the political Greens (read UNP) to near extinction, it stands accused of having given its backers a free hand to destroy the country’s forest cover. Before the last presidential and parliamentary elections, the SLPP made a solemn pledge to protect the environment and restore the rule of law, among other things, but what it is doing is the very antithesis of its promise. Not even the crippling gavel blow SJB MP and former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen suffered at the hands of the Court of Appeal for destroying part of the Kallaru forest reserve has had a deterrent effect on the pro-government groups engaged in destroying the Dahaiyagala sanctuary. Bauthiudeen cut his teeth on forest destruction when he was a minister in the previous Rajapaksa regime. One can only hope that the government will not open an escape route for him in return for his party’s votes in Parliament.

Some environmentalists blame the government for having triggered what may be called the ongoing deforestation frenzy; they claim the forest lands that villagers obtain permission, at the President’s Gama Samaga Pilisandarak events, to clear purportedly for cultivation are subsequently given to private companies. It will be interesting to know the government’s response to this very serious allegation.

Sri Lankan governments are notorious for enriching their cronies at the expense of forests. One may recall that the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s Gam Udawa programme became Golconda for some timber racketeers connected to the UNP as many valuable trees were felled for establishing new villages. Environmentalists also protested against forest clearance at some of the Deyata Kirula exhibition sites, under the previous Rajapaksa government.

Why the protesting environmentalists fear a sinister plan to privatise some forest lands is understandable. The present-day leaders once handed over a section of a national park to a multinational corporation. US food giant, Dole, acquired a vast extent of land in Polonnaruwa for a banana cultivation, under the previous Rajapaksa government. It has sought to deny that its plantation is within the Somawathiya National Park, but Mongabay with the help of Google Earth has confirmed that the banana plantation is inside the park. Among the Sri Lankans who brokered this disastrous land deal are some former national cricketers, who are going places again under the present dispensation. They are likely to destroy both cricket and forests!

Independence Day celebrations having just been concluded, it should be recalled that some high-ranking colonial officials evinced a keen interest in tree planting campaigns here. It is mostly thanks to the British that we have tree-lined streets in some urban areas. True, commercial plantations had a devastating impact on the country’s forest cover during the colonial rule, but the fact remains that the then rulers at least made a serious effort to plant trees systematically; it is doubtful whether such campaigns have been conducted by native politicians since Independence; there have been only some half-hearted attempts to increase the tree cover.

Let the self-proclaimed patriots currently in power be urged to do at least what the colonial officers did to save the country’s forest cover, which has dropped to an alarming 17%, and increase it as a top national priority.

The government backers destroying the Dahaiyagala sanctuary must be reined in. And fast!