Hoffmann’s involvement in the WNPS and some unpleasant incidents in later years

(Excerpted from the authorized biography of Thilo Hoffmann
by Douglas. B. Ranasinghe)

In the development of the Society Thilo received the loyal support of Sam Rajendran, who worked as Office Assistant until 1973. He knew most members personally, and was much liked, an asset to the Society. He was followed by J. Azeez, who worked in that position for many years, with integrity and wide acceptance. Many sound people of eminence were attracted to the General Committee, and other positions were filled by promising youngsters.

There were people such as Leela Dias-Bandaranayake, Chandra Liyanage, Nigel Austin, Charitha Ratwatte and “Ken” Balendra. Chari (C. P.) de Silva was Treasurer for many years. Lalith Senanayake, as the long-standing Honorary Secretary of the Society, was of great help to Thilo, and became a close friend. During the time of his leadership of the Society Thilo Hoffmann was a Director and later the CEO of A. Baur and Co. Ltd. The company provided the infrastructure for his conservation work, and helped the Society in many important ways.

Thilo’s secretary at Baurs, Mrs Yvonne Nadarajah, nee Rogers, most efficiently did all the typing of his innumerable letters, memos, reports, minutes and publications. These were usually dictated after office hours: see the Elapata article. She learned to take down in shorthand most complicated and technical texts. Thilo stresses that without her exceptional devotion and efficiency he would not have been able to achieve what he did.

There were some who claimed that the CEO of a firm which dealt in fertilizers and agrochemicals (amongst other things) could not possibly also be the head of the country’s premier conservation society. Thilo did not see it that way. He explains:

“The responsible use of fertilizers in agriculture worldwide is essential for the ability to feed growing populations and enhance the quality of life. Only the excessive, ill-informed use of fertilizers and chemicals causes environmental damage. Sensible and intelligent conservation has to be combined with realistic and responsible agricultural policies and practices, which on a large scale necessarily involve the use of chemicals.”

When Thilo started at Baurs their special mixtures consisted of up to 50% and more of organic ingredients, such as bone-meal, fish-meal, guano, oil-cakes etc. The prices of these had in the meantime risen to such heights that their use as fertilizers had long become prohibitive.

Alongside his work for the WNPS and conservation, he continued his explorations in the island, surveys of its natural sites and the study of its fauna and flora. This is reflected in various publications. In Loris for example, his personal observations of elephants over the years led him to write the two articles on their habitats, numbers and distribution.

We find that in the issue containing the first there is also by Hoffmann ‘’The Hog Deer’ and ‘The Cats of Sri Lanka’ and in the second: ‘Down the Mahaweli by Boat 114’ – a seven-page survey, much more than an account of adventure. He also pursued his interest in ornithology, and, in parallel with the WNPS, conducted the affairs of the Ceylon Bird Club, as described in a later Chapter.

TWO CRITICAL CHANGES

In 1966, when E. B. Wikramanayake was the President and Thilo was the Secretary, one of the stated objectives of the Society was “to safeguard the interests of legitimate sport”, that is, hunting. Hoffmann was largely responsible for removing that obnoxious clause. Wikramanayake, paying tribute to him on his election as Honorary Life Member in 1981, stated this among his many achievements on behalf of the Society.

It was a hard battle as hunters and their supporters were very strong in the Society. For the first time a poll was taken to ascertain the views of the entire membership. The deletion of the hunting clause was approved by majority vote. In a largely Buddhist country it is remarkable that this change was initiated by Thilo.

During his tenure as President of the Society, Hoffmann suggested that its name be changed from the ‘Wildlife Protection Society of Ceylon’ to the ‘Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Ceylon’, in view of the fact that wildlife cannot be properly protected without conserving nature in general. This suggestion was given effect to at the Annual General Meeting held on December 14, 1971. The new name (now ending in “Sri Lanka”) is abbreviated `WNPS’.

At the same meeting a resolution to launch a campaign for the preservation of some 20,000 acres of Sinharaja was adopted. The rescue of this rainforest is the subject of the next Chapter. Hoffmann had argued also that without the change the Society would not be able to speak effectively in this matter.

Spreading the message

After the successful battle to save Sinharaja, it became apparent to the WNPS that the message of conservation should be taken to the grassroot level, the village. From time immemorial villagers knew the value of protecting the forest, as much as the wewa and temple. There is a belief among them that every large tree is the abode of a deity and the forest is sacred. When the necessity arose to cut a tree, they lit a lamp and obtained permission from the incumbent deity before it was felled. These old customs and traditions were gradually eroding.

The Rev. Neluwe Gunananda Thero, who helped in saving Sinharaja, met Thilo as President of the WNPS in his office, and made a request that the Society, as the only concerned organization in Sri Lanka, should endeavour to convey the conservation message to the rural population. A similar point had been made earlier by Dr R. L. Spittel, the first Ceylonese President of the Wildlife Protection Society of Ceylon, when in his biography ‘Surgeon of the Wilderness’, he declared:

“Conservation in this island is essentially for the people of Ceylon, and we should not for a moment forget this.” The same idea had been expressed many times by Thilo, both verbally and in writing. The General Committee of the Society appointed an Action Committee. Thilo obtained data from World Wildlife Fund India about the formation of Nature Clubs in schools.

The action committee submitted their proposals to take conservation to village communities through schools, and to publish the first nature magazine in Sinhala. In this manner knowledge of conservation could be imparted, and children encouraged to write about their experiences.

The proposals were approved and the first student Nature Club was declared open in 1976 at Kalutara Maha Vidyalaya, with the assistance of Nimal Liyanarachchi, a science teacher of the school. He had been a student of Douglas B. Ranasinghe, the Secretary of the Action Committee. Thilo Hoffmann, as President, and Ranjen Fernando, as Secretary, of the WNPS participated in this event, and a mango tree was planted in the school premises to commemorate it.

View from Baur’s Building, Colombo, towards Mount Lavinia (1960). At left rear, the new Ceylinco Building under construction, the old building in front of it. Foreground: Clippenberg House, empty space for the Central Bank with British military quarters (right extreme).

In the same year the Sinhala magazine Warana — translation: great tusker — was published, with Russell Kuruppu as editor and Ranasinghe as sub-editor. The concept was an instant success. By 1987 there were 80 Student Nature Clubs in various parts of the country, and from the inception the Department of Education purchased annually 6,400 copies of the biennial magazine for distribution to all government schools in the country. Warana, the first Sinhala nature periodical continues without a break, with Ranasinghe as editor, and has now attained 30 years of successful existence.

In order to further activate interest of school students especially and of all Sinhala- speaking people in birds and their environment, the WNPS in 1978 financed the first book on birds written in Sinhala, namely Asirimat Kurulu Lokaya by Douglas Ranasinghe, and also the Sri Lanka’ Avifaunal List by T. S.U. de Zylva and the same author, which presented the first list of Sinhala names of all the bird species known in Sri Lanka.

As a result of the pioneering action taken by the WNPS headed by Hoffmann, there are at present over 400 Student Nature Clubs in schools in Sri Lanka, and the past members of these have their own NGOs, to promote the conservation movement in urban areas as well as at village level. The patron teachers of the Student Nature Clubs, too, have their separate Patron Teachers Clubs, and a nature magazine, and quietly promote the conservation movement at village level.

In 1976 Hoffmann, as President of WNPS, wrote a handout titled Conserve or Perish, which was distributed throughout the country to schools, to farmers, to administrators and all people young and old. This was done in the hope that those who read the leaflet would look at their own environment, recognize the truths of warnings given in the address and act in a responsible manner for the good of all citizens and the country. 100,000 copies of this leaflet in Sinhala and 15,000 copies in English were printed and distributed.

Problems within

Thilo Hoffmann’s leadership had clearly brought the Society greater respect and influence. Yet there came a time when opposition to his Presidency began to make life difficult for him.It all started with a dispute with the World Wildlife Fund. Thilo tried to uphold the independence and dignity of the Sri Lankan national society against the overbearing attitude of the international giant and its representatives. One of the issues was Hoffmann’s opposition to a First-World ‘elephant expert’. This man proposed, among other things, that all or most wild elephants in Sri Lanka over seven feet tall should be killed.

The situation was used against Thilo by a young woman who had lately formed a dislike towards him. She thought, mistakenly, that the Hoffmanns were partly to blame for the breakdown of her marriage to a close friend and fellow office-bearer in the WNPS. A campaign of vilification against Thilo began to spread, through powerful family connections. It had strong xenophobic undertones: “Why do we need a foreigner as President of the WNPS?”

This was eagerly picked up by a motley range of people of all walks of life, most of whom did not know Thilo Hoffmann, or what he stood for, and also by some with personal grudges. Others who had never before or after shown even the vaguest interest in conservation or wildlife, and knew nothing about it, were recruited into the ranks of opposition, and soon began to make themselves felt.

The drive gathered momentum from one AGM to the next, the campaign, now of personal vilification, spilled over into the press. Particularly, the monthly Tribune carried regular features attacking him ruthlessly and unfairly. There was nothing that could be done against this massed hostility. Eventually it forced Thilo to give up in dismay.

At no stage were any of his actions for nature, wildlife or the Society questioned or criticized. He was accused of being autocratic and a foreigner, and – incongruously – it was held against him that the WWF, an INGO, had declared him ‘persona non grata’. Its Director-General had actually written to a Committee Member that as long as Hoffmann was President of the WNPS they would have no dealings with it.

For many years the WNPS under Thilo had, in fact, been working closely with the WWF – a much younger organization – and was its official representative in Sri Lanka. Its first Director-General was Dr Fritz Vollmar, a Swiss. He and his wife Daniele visited Sri Lanka several times and had a good rapport with both Lalith Senanayake and Thilo.

Then Vollmar was pushed out of his position, which was taken by a Dutch national. The World Wildlife Fund was later renamed the World Wide Fund for Nature.Other allegations about Thilo Hoffmann began to spread and two linger to this day. One is a conflict between his employment and conservation. His response has been noted above. The other is that he “smuggled antiques” out of Sri Lanka. The only matters which could even faintly be related and possibly be a basis for distortion are given below.

Thilo was once held up at Customs for having a geuda with him, during the days of hyper-strict control. It was a birthday present from his wife to his younger sister, who was ill with cancer. The purchase, for Rs 50, was confirmed by Wimalaratna Bros. and the stone given back to him. Another time, too, shortly before, he was searched at the airport and nothing found. On each occasion, the embarrassed officer hinted that there was a tip-off!

Throughout their life in Sri Lanka, Thilo’s wife collected many diverse objects and wares, some of British and Dutch origin. These were sent to Switzerland together with other household goods when the couple was moving there, after Thilo’s retirement, long after the campaign. The official procedures were always followed.

The General Committee with the exception of three members stood loyally by their President. So did the majority of members at various AGMs. The Committee tried hard to persuade Thilo to continue as President. But in 1982 he declined to offer himself for re-election. The workload at Baurs, too, had greatly increased, and the lessening of one set of responsibilities would be a relief.

Afterwards

The Society later elected him an Honorary Life Member. In 1997 it presented to him a plaque on which is recorded “grateful appreciation of services rendered from 1960-1997”. Thilo continued for many years as ex-officio member of the General Committee of the Society. His interest and active involvement in conservation issues has never ceased to this day.