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Photo focus: The highway rape of Htota’s grazing land
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Story and pix by Rahul Samantha Hettiarachchi in Hambantota
Dairy farming and dairy farmers in Hambantota are facing an uncertain future as their grazing lands are allegedly being destroyed as a result of the construction activities connected to the Hambantota – Mattala section of the Southern Expressway.
Racketeers are clearing large swathes of grazing land claiming they have been authorized to remove earth needed for development work on the expressway.
Dairy farmers allege, many of these so-called developers are either racketeers with no valid permits or are blatantly disregarding the conditions laid down in the permits.
Due to the ongoing destruction of their grazing lands, dairy farmers’ associations in the area say they face severe difficulties in finding fodder for their cattle.
According to farmer associations, four years ago there were nearly 30,000 head of cattle in the area. Today the numbers have plummeted to a mere 12,000 as many farmers were forced to sell their herds due to difficulty in finding food.
Fearing that numbers would dwindle even further due to the depletion of grazing land the farmers are now appealing to the President to safeguard their land and way of life.
Not a blade of grass in sight... stop the rape of our lands, farmers plead with the President.
All that's left of the once thriving curd industry... empty pots
Development sans planning... desperate farmers are forced drive their herds into the scrub jungle to forage for food
As tippers carry away the precious top soil to create the expressway desertification is left in its wake
Cattle are normally left in scrub jungle during the calving season... with no grazing land, cattle have to search for food in the scrub jungles daily
With no grazing land available the cattle have been reduced to skin and bone