Wake up! there’s devastation right in front of your eyes
View(s):Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala warns of irreversible depletion in the Nirmala de Mel memorial lecture, ‘Red alert: Sri Lanka’s vanishing natural wealth’
By Shaveen Jeewandara
“Every time I met her she would back me into a corner and say, ‘Darling, we have to do something about the environment’. If you are looking from above Nirmala, I hope that you will find this presentation a fitting tribute to your passion for the environment,” said Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala delivering ‘Red alert: Sri Lanka’s vanishing natural wealth’, a lecture held in memory of Nirmala de Mel. The lecture was held under the aegis of Ruk Rakaganno, at Barefoot earlier this month.
Dr. Miththapala delivering the lecture
The trees are calling. The stream that flows through the forest tells a poisonous tale. The critters run amok as the lumberjack raises his axe, and a lonely sloth bear raises its head atop a mountain of garbage. There’s devastation, and it’s right in front of our eyes, but how many of us see it?
Opening our eyes in realisation was the theme at the lecture and eminent biologist and environmentalist Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala, painted a vivid picture of the biodiversity of our country; the riches and the ill-considered squandering.
“Gosh, I wish I had asked for six lectures,” Dr. Miththapala remarked, hinting at the depth of the topic, as she went on to describe the 20 different categorised habitats of Sri Lanka and their unique characteristics. “These diverse habitats interact with plants, animals and other organisms to form ecosystems which provide us with many ecosystem services,” she said.
Sri Lanka is blessed with over 103 rivers that flow from the central hills to the sea, and some 10,000 reservoirs or tanks, extending, in total, over nearly 60,000ha, providing perennial and seasonal sources of water. This, she mentions, coupled with the climatic and physical conditions has given rise to a great wealth of habitats.
In turn there is an abundance of flora and fauna, with an array of endemic species. This is where the term ‘biodiversity hotspot’ is being abused by the masses. However, it is not something to boast about, we learn. “We have a dubious title of being a hotspot in the world. Many people use this as a banner to boast about our diversity not fully understanding what a hotspot really means: the criteria for selection is that the area holds more than 1500 higher plants, but has lost more than 70% of its natural vegetation. This is a sad indictment of the way we have guarded our wealth,” Dr. Miththapala reveals.
Pointing out the case of the island having lost 19 of its 118 species of amphibians, Dr. Miththapala raised warnings of further depletion – irreversible depletion. “Many species are threatened with extinction. For dragonflies, freshwater crabs, landsnails, freshwater fish, amphibians and reptiles more than 50% of the species are threatened.”
Cutting down and burning of forests is the prime threat faced by the natural wealth of our country. In a shocking fact oblivious to many, Dr. Miththapala revealed that the percentage of our forest cover has decreased from 84% in the 1880s to 22% in the 1990s – estimates indicating that it could be as low as 19% right now.
“We fill and reclaim wetlands. We have lost more than 50% of our wetlands. We flatten sand dunes and build hotels. We dynamite coral reefs. The habitats with the highest number of species and highest levels of endemism – submontane forest of Peak Wilderness and Knuckles – are also the most threatened in Sri Lanka. We are losing dry zone forests as we speak,” she said outlining the stark reality.
Dr. Miththapala gave examples galore of species that are threatened by habitat loss. The Vesak Orchid, is now confined to the lowland forests of the Ratnapura area; the symbolic Red-faced Malkoha, messenger of the Avurudu, is now restricted to the canopies of lowland rainforest; the Western purple-faced langur, listed as one of the world’s 25 most endangered primates is now restricted to tiny patches of forest in the wet zone.
“The Green turtle – comes back to nest on the beach in which it was hatched, perhaps to find the beach no more. Nearly 1/3rd of Sri Lanka’s resident birds are forest dwellers, including all the endemics. Of the endemics 60% are restricted to the forests of the wet zone, which are mostly gone,” she said.
“We simply take too much. We have selectively removed high value timber species such as Ebony and Satinwood from the dry zone and Calamander and Nedun from the wet zone. Satinwood is the plant on which the Banded Peacock lays its eggs and whose leaves its caterpillars eat. With a decrease in Satinwood populations, Banded Peacocks are also diminishing in number. Dolphins are caught accidentally as by-catch. Leopards are killed for their skins and snared either deliberately or accidentally.”
Over-visitation of wildlife parks is also a prime problem, with scenes of jeeps queuing up to catch glimpses of leopards, and boats encroaching on whales becoming commonplace. “What is scary is that one impact may have several others and there may be a ripple effect of extinctions. We just saw the examples of the Blue Oakleaf and Banded Peacock butterflies as well as Black-cheeked lizard. We have no knowledge whether there will be a cascade of extinctions or a domino effect of some impact,” Dr. Miththapala said.
“We can blame the government. We can blame the official custodians. We can lobby and police and rant, but ultimately, each one of us must accept that we are all responsible for having squandered our natural wealth. We are all guilty of misusing and squandering this wealth. We are not exempt from blame for what has happened to it. So the change must come from within us.”
A small personal reduction could have a big impact. Dr. Miththapala questions the audience – “Do we need Vana raja in our gardens —a jewel orchid found only in shaded areas of wet zone forests? We have hundreds of horticultural species from which to pick, why do we need such a plant? Do we really need coral jewellery? Reefs are dynamited or species plucked from the reef for this purpose. How many of us are guilty of moving a vehicle that much closer to an animal to take the perfect photograph? Why do we need a threatened, protected animal as a pet when there are so many domesticated species for us to rear as pets?”
“These are all small changes but every small change matters. We can’t live without paper or plastic but we can reduce our use. Every small change counts and every small change collectively accrues to have big impacts. There are a lot of things we can’t control. Some of us have bigger spheres of influence than others but we all have the power to change first ourselves, and the spheres around us, however small they are.”
In the forefront of conservation
An ardent nature lover, Nirmala de Mel who died in early January was always proactive in her actions to conserve the environment. Educated at Ladies’ College Colombo, she graduated from the University of Cambridge with an MA in Anthropology. Going on to manage the family firm, Quickshaws, she was also a committee member of PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association), and served as a trustee of the National Trust of Sri Lanka, while also being a founder member of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce.
She joined and later became the president of ‘Ruk Rakaganno’, which was formed in the early 1970s by her father Vere De Mel. Nirmala held the presidency for over ten years, in which time she spearheaded the battles that were fought in the name of conserving Sri Lanka’s forests.
In 2005, under Nirmala’s stewardship, Ruk Rakaganno took over the management of the Sam Popham Arboretum in Dambulla, a garden of Dry Zone indigenous trees which provides its worth as an environment education centre for school and university students.
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