News
Wildlife Minister to remove protected status for areas from Wilpattu Park
Government plans to remove several acres of the protected Wilpattu National Park where a church is located from ‘Protected Area’ status has shocked conservationists.
Serious concerns are being raised with strident calls to “leave valuable Wilpattu alone”, as the Sunday Times learns that Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs Minister John Amaratunga had instructed the submission of a proposal to de-gazette (remove from protected status) this area, for approval by the Cabinet of Ministers.
“Such de-gazetting would set a ‘bad’ precedent, encouraging the removal of ‘protected’ status from other areas as well where religious sites are within National Parks (NPs),” stressed all conservationists.
It is understood that the Cabinet paper was submitted on August 2 but has not come back to the ministry with Cabinet approval yet.
Attempts by the Sunday Times to contact high officials of the ministry and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) – who are the guardians of the Wilpattu NP on behalf of the people of Sri Lanka – failed as they are in Switzerland attending the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting.
“The approval of the Cabinet of Ministers is sought to issue a Gazette Notification to exclude the area of land in extent of 6 acres and 3 roods where the St. Anthony’s Church is situated from the Wilpattu National Park by amending the Gazette Notification No. 89 dated 07/12/1973, together with the access road to the church approximately 1 km in distance from the turn off at the Suruwama junction on the old Puttalam Road,” is the recommendation to the Cabinet by the ministry, the Sunday Times learns.
Protests were heard in environmental circles about moves to de-gazette parts of Wilpattu, with strong opinions that even taking away an inch of land would cause immense danger to this National Park as well as the country.
A former DWC Director-General, Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya was categorical. “De-gazetting a section of a National Park for any purpose is completely unacceptable and sets an extremely bad precedent for the future. It will open the floodgates for politically motivated exclusion of lands from protected national reserves,” he said, adding that as we understand, this paper is yet to be considered by the Cabinet.
“I have always advocated against the establishment of ministries with conflicting mandates. This situation is a case in point, why ministries with conflicting mandates should not be combined. This Government talks eloquently about its commitment to the environment and wildlife, and I think, now is the time for our leaders to show the country that they stand by their rhetoric,” added Dr. Pilapitiya.
Environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardena was very specific on another vital issue – no part of a Protected Area can be de-gazetted without an environmental assessment.
This is the law as set down in Section 2, Sub-sections 4 and 5 of the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO), he reiterated, questioning whether the environmental assessment had been conducted before the de-gazetting proposal was submitted to Cabinet.
“Wilpattu was declared a National Park after acquiring all the land and the Roman Catholic Church was allowed to have its feast under ‘traditional activity’ under Section 3, Sub-section 3 of the FFPO. This in no way gives the church the right to own or acquire the land within a Protected Area. If part of a Protected Area is ‘excised’ there will be a detrimental effect on the whole NP,” he added.
This is totally unacceptable, said Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando of the Centre for Conservation and Research (CCR), stressing that it will set “a very bad precedent”. It will pave the way for large acreages within all the NPs to be de-gazetted on the whims of politicians and religious institutions.
Another conservationist said that the small Pallekandal church which had been used by seasonal fishermen in the distant past is in the Pomparippu area. When the NP was declared, the ‘traditional right of worship’ was granted but subject to the FFPO and under the strict supervision of the DWC.
This arrangement worked but since the end of the war the church has expanded rapidly, with larger numbers attending the annual feast. Monthly masses too have begun now, the source said, adding that violations of NP regulations include clearing brush in vast swathes, the lighting of fires, the selling of meat and car parks being created out of grasslands that are the prime feeding areas for herds of elephants concentrated only in the Pomparippu area. The DWC’s attempts to seek church conformity to the regulations have allegedly been met with threats and political pressure.
The source pointed out that efforts to solve the issues through a meeting with the Roman Catholic clergy arranged by the Papal Nuncio followed by a letter of appeal to Pope Francis failed. Now a special gazette is being prepared to re-demarcate the Wilpattu NP. It will destroy the integrity of a contiguous wilderness area and set a very bad precedent.
Many sources also questioned how Minister Amaratunga could submit such a Cabinet paper when there are legal battles being fought in the two Superior Courts.
One is in the Supreme Court challenging the construction of a road through the Wilpattu NP and the other in the Court of Appeal over the unlawful and unregulated religious festivities taking place at the Pallekandal Church within the NP. The cases have been filed by the Environmental Foundation (Guarantee) Ltd. (EFL) and the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society (WNPS).
Not only is the Minister a respondent in both cases but there is also a major conflict of interest when he submits such a Cabinet paper because he is one and the same person handling ‘wildlife’ and ‘Christian religious affairs’, sources pointed out.