President’s ‘Conversation With The Village’ A Devastating Blow To The Wild Elephants, Leopards & Forests  

By Rajasinghe Bandara –FEBRUARY 11, 2021

With ‘Conversation with the Village’ (Gama samaga Pilisandara), President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has given a ‘Green light’ to the villagers for chena type cultivation (Hain Govithan) which could lead to destroy a massive area of Island’s green space including the forests grown freely during the 30 year long civil war because the villagers claim they had been living and farming there for a long time and fled to other arears during the war. In fact, those who genuinely lived there, for a long time, returned to their traditional villagers soon after the war, about 10 years ago. For example, Sinhalese villagers in Vavuniya, Padaviya, Horowupothana.

Beauty and Tranquillity of the catchment area of a lake in Vavuniya

Do villagers tell the truth to the president? if they do, there must be evidence like permanent houses, grown coconut trees etc. In most cases those people had previously encroached (occupied or cultivated without permits) lands even in the catchment areas of the reservoirs and lakes such as Kala Veva or even in the protected forests or forest reserves. Some of those lands were parts of historical sites. There are thousands of examples to prove this. On one occasion they were requesting from Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa to construct a road which may well cross the elephant corridor in Thimbiliyakada

On the Independence Day celebration, 04th February, I watched on a news channel, people in the tourism industry, in the South, holding a news conference to protect Dahaiyagala elephant corridor. They claim some people have already started encroaching and destroying the reserve. Which is the only safe passage for the elephants to move between several national parks in the area. Wildlife and forest conservation officers have a duty to protect them because they are sensitive to protect remaining forest cover, endangered wildlife, to minimise human-elephant conflict, and as well as to maintain a sustainability of the economy.

When president instruct the officers to take immediate actions or take no action to prosecute the villagers, they become helpless because they need to have meticulous planning to address those issues. At Haldomulla in Haputhale district, when officer asked ‘Sir, we need circulars to implement it’, Mr Rajapaksa said, ‘Take my words as circulars, I’m the executive president’ No doubt he has enormous powers with the 20th amendment. In fact, the president’s duty should be leading the officers to set up protocols to make fair judgments while minimising damage to the environment.

Reborn jungle in the catchment area of Madukanda Lake

Sri Lanka recorded highest number of elephants’ deaths in the world, 407, in 2020, due to human elephant conflict, just a year after Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected as the president. In the same year 122 people were killed in the conflict. This figure is alarming because previous annual average was 272 elephants’ deaths and 85 human victims. According to Times of India, Sri Lanka also ranked number two globally after India where highest number of human deaths reported due to human-elephant conflict. 

In 2019, our country recorded highest number of elephant deaths, 361, since independence in 1948. This shows, year after year the figure is rising despite the public outcry over the human-elephant conflict and the deforestation.   

As an endangered species, leopards have been listed in the Red Data Book since 2008, means now they are on the brink of extinction. Despite the wake-up calls to the government with the death of extremely rare Black Panther, last May, in 2020, 13 leopards were reported killed. Most of them died after being trapped in the snares including the beautiful, young black panther. The leopard population in Sri Lanka is around 900.  How long they are going to survive? Leopards are roaming in Sri Lanka because their habitats have been destroyed and they enter villages in search of foods and kill domestic dogs, even cats. It is another sad conflict between villagers and the wild animals. As far as the tourism industry is concerned, elephants and leopards are treasures of Sri Lanka.

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