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Scientists, environmentalists and others concerned with the indiscriminate destruction over decades of Sri Lanka’s forests and its vital ecosystems should surely be thankful to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for putting a stop to the savage decimation of areas of the renowned Sinharaja Forest.

If all that is said of Gotabaya Rajapaksa that he is a person who takes quick firm decisions and adheres to them is true, then one hopes his decision to end the building of a road through this World Heritage Site is a victory for those who have over the years fought to save this forest from political vandals, money-sucking businessmen and two-legged leeches of various sorts that are external to the ecosystem that needs protection and saving.

How many of our entrepreneurial clan is really concerned with the observable collapsing of our ecosystems, of the dangers to life in the next few decades and future generations can perhaps be counted on the fingers of two hands.

Even those who claim to be educated — armed with certificates but with little intelligence — will read the first paragraphs of international scientific reports by world experts that spell out doomsday scenarios, toss them aside and reach for business reports to see how much money they have made in the share market.

Some of our politicians make noises meant to convey their concerns for the people but show no knowledge or interest in how the natural habitat on which we survive is to be sustained and preserved.

Readers might recall that not too many months ago a woman Forest Officer challenged in public a politician who wanted to destroy large extents of mangroves in the Negombo area because he wanted a school playground built. Obviously he had no idea of the importance of mangroves to our ecosystem.

Undoubtedly there are business persons and enterprises that are conscious of the dangers ahead from ecological destruction and have started to take visible steps to ensure their sustainability. They are to be lauded but how many such concerned persons roam the business and political world.

The regular reports on climate change and environmental degradation through human activity continue to raise alarms about the dangers to our planet that lie ahead and the urgent need to save our resources.

Road building in the Sinharaja forest has been stopped following a presidential order

That is why President Rajapaksa’s decision last week to act on protests and complaints to UNESCO and local authorities and stop road building that suddenly resumed this month in the Sinharaja Forest and its environs should be applauded.

Information available indicates that this road project began in 2013 and then was halted when protests were lodged with the relevant UN body.

But then after the parliamentary election this month, road building started once more despite the fact that whoever was involved in it was encroaching on a World Heritage site.

The work resumed soon after the election having been halted almost eight years earlier. It is natural that those concerned would look for some nexus between the election result and the resumption of road building less than a week later.

What is more, it is claimed that machinery of the army and army personnel had been deployed for this purpose.  Last week I watched a Sinhala-language video presented by A5News that exposed some background to what has been going on and the resumption of the road building via Sinharaja that is intended to link Lankagama with Deniyaya.

What is so damning is the claim made in the news video that since work resumed on the road construction at the end of July, machinery belonging to the army and army personnel were used to clear the way for this road.

If Lewis Carroll’s Alice thought that things were getting curiouser and curiouser in Wonderland, she might have paid a visit to this Land like no other. If what I read some weeks ago is not news extracted from some Trump fake-news factory working overtime now that presidential elections are near, a Task Force has been set up to ensure the protection of Buddhist archeological sites in the East.

Protecting ancient sites with the help of military/naval personnel might well be laudable. But to find that at the same time military personnel and equipment are being used to destroy and endanger an area of Sri Lanka’s primary tropical rainforest that has been recognised and accepted as a World Heritage Site over 30 years ago by a respected world body, is jammed with inconsistency.

Protecting on the one hand and destroying on the other highly valued subjects safeguarded under the highest legal protection, appear an illogicality that is hard to defend.

To begin with, this whole affair seems shrouded in mysterious manoeuvres that need excavating just as those archeological sites that we strive to explore.

What is interesting and needs to be pursued is who were involved in this attempt eight years ago to creep their way into Sinharaja and whether they had any official authorisations from relevant institutions with power to permit such activity as digging their way into the forest?

Who or what were the official bodies that had the authority to permit such incursion into Sinharaja Forest that had been declared a World Heritage Site as far back as 1988? So how is it that in 2013, during the second term of the Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency inroads were already being made to dismember Sinharaja; who authorised such action and on whose behalf was it done?

Are we trying to look after and protect those of our heritage that are intrinsically valuable to mankind or just those aspects and objects which will contribute to the aggrandizement of the personal and generational assets and booty of some citizens?

The Road Development Authority (RDA) in a statement last week said President Rajapaksa had “ordered road construction taking place in the buffer zone and inside the Sinharaja World Heritage Site be immediately halted”. It did not say whether temporarily or not.

It further said that “the building of an 18 kilometre road from Neluwa, Galle to Lankagama running through the Sinharaja forest was started as a request from the residents in the area.”

The RDA statement is not only curious but dubious. Who are the residents of the area who requested this? Even if such a request was made is it not the function and responsibility of those to whom the “request” was made to ensure that it had the authority to grant such a request and, if not, to obtain the necessary authority from those empowered to do so.

Did the RDA do so? Did it obtain clearance from UNESCO which had declared Sinharaja a World Heritage Site in 1988? If not why? Has it then not been violating an agreement with an international body?

What respect would international organisations have for Sri Lanka if it continues to ignore or violate provisions of any such agreement at its whim and fancy?

Having looked at some background to this whole imbroglio one must perforce  ask whether this road building was started at the request of residents in the area as claimed by the RDA, or to fulfill the needs of proprietary planters or a couple of hoteliers to whom this would serve as a convenient and useful place of tourist interest?

Since it is the RDA that has issued the statement, one might ask whether the authority is trying to lead the public up the Sinharaja garden path?

Given the Government’s growing interest in archeology, perhaps it might divert some of those experts to dig into the real story of Sinharaja. Otherwise we will never see the forest for the trees.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was Assistant Editor, Diplomatic Editor and Political Columnist of the Hong Kong Standard before moving to London where he worked for Gemini News Service. Later he was Deputy Chief-of-Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London before returning to journalism. )