Columns

I say, hell of a thing no, my neighbour during our college days used to say falling back on the colloquial when puzzled by political and bureaucrats actions cause him and others unnecessary confusion and the nation deprivation.

Being badly governed and inured to lying (though I used to call them prevarications) are consequences for “little people”, he used to say with the wisdom of a seasoned plebian battered and bruised by those who steal his vote and then steal the public purse.

In the last several days I have been wondering what he would have said if he and his friends closeby had been confronted by the ongoing saga of the Sinharaja desecration that began some eight years or so ago but since had the curtain drawn across it.

That was until the middle of this month when bulls and bulldozers were destroying sacred ground that once this country treated and respected with pride when international honour was bestowed on it.

Today that same ecologically-sacred land is being trampled upon with such condescension and cleared of its precious treasures in the name of road building and development. As the old saying goes even the way to hell is paved with good intentions, if that is what this is all about.

But there are thousands who have doubts about the so-called benefits of this road building. Even if this does not benefit the many, they will certainly benefit the few who are already paving the shortcuts to prosperity.

Why deny the benefits to those who see virtue in aggrandizement and will readily sing hallelujas to self, politics and nation — in that order if you please — as they close the counting house after counting out the money

As someone here still under corona isolation said the other day, the Sri Lankan nation of 22 million people is filling with patriots, nationalists, ultra do-gooders, Hitler admirers, Nazi sympathisers and pandankarayas of various types, shapes and sizes.

Why, there are even pseudo-Buddhists who insult the Buddha by quoting his words and scripture to buttress the crooked and vulgar, as an aggrieved Vihara-going ardent Buddhist here in London said in anger.

It is not just in what they once called home that people’s ire has risen at the stench of hypocrisy that surrounds this Sinharaja drama. It is the growing profusion of patriotic predators carving their way across what were such pristine forests of fauna and flora that brought international fame to Sri Lanka.

Today the genuine inhabitants of that forest such as those lovely monkeys shown on video must surely wonder at what sort of two-legged animals with four-wheeled machines have invaded their habitat, felling trees and destroying undergrowth and contributing to the global ecocide which concerns the world and future generations but seemingly not the destroyers of the forest.

Instead of the precious species that inhabited the Sinharaja reserve that was once home to disappearing endemic fauna and flora it is today turning into a roadway for marauding man.

Despite news conferences by political newcomers and statements by state authorities, vital questions remain unanswered by those who rise to the defence of the road builders.

How is it that a road project which was stopped in 2013 after protests by environmentalists and complaints to UNESCO suddenly sprouted to life in mid-August with rumbling bulldozers and other machinery appearing within a few days of the parliamentary election?

Media reports including video coverage indicate that this construction machinery belonged to the engineering division of the army. Whether this is true or not I am unable to say. But so far I have not seen any official reports that contradict the media contention or the remarks of environment experts.

A person with average intelligence would be — or should be — aware that ordering military equipment — if it is indeed military machinery was in use just days after the election — is not like walking into a supermarket, dumping a couple of bulldozers into a grocery cart and pushing it to the till to pay the bill.

To be ordered to release the equipment and then have them released in a few days is not a simple task.

The A5News video quoted in this column last Sunday poses some questions to the new Matara District MP Nipuna Ranawaka, Chairman of the Matara District Development Committee.

It was perhaps in response to this that Ranawaka held a news conference. His approach then might have acquired greater legitimacy had it been more convincing. Ranawaka says those widening the road had not obtained the permission of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA). This surely is egregiously irresponsible conduct. He said President Rajapaksa had called for a report on this imbroglio. Environmentalists and a concerned public more conscious of future ecological degradation would hope that a president acutely where of our religious and archaeological heritage would be equally conscious of the enormous value of our environment.

Experts know that environmental surroundings get to be divided when technological advancement breaks up areas of land such as roads that slice through forests and woods.

Ranawaka made no mention of who are “those widening the road”? Are they the same individuals or lot who were ‘widening roads’ way back in 2013 and had the project stopped following complaints to UNESCO as the Sinharaja Forest Reserve is a World Heritage Site under the care of UNESCO?

Now, if according to Ranawaka, the present road builders had not obtained the permission of the CEA to do the road works that requires widening of a road/roads then was this omission by accident, ignorance or design?

Since this is an issue that concerns more than the Sri Lankan authorities but also the Sri Lankan public and UNESCO, a world body, surely the public has a right to know who the person is or persons are responsible for this project without having obtained the necessary legal requirements from the proper authority.

This is particularly so for several reasons.

Are they the same persons who violated the laws some eight years and had to be stopped after UNESCO intervention? If so how were they allowed to restart the project without permission as admitted to by Nipuna Ranawaka?

Since President Rajapaksa has rightly stated that Sri Lankan society must be a law abiding one and should adhere to the rule of law this is not a simple offence like stealing a coconut.

It is tantamount to the destruction of a world recognised heritage site. So should the public and other concerned not be made aware of how this society is destroying an internationally recognised heritage while paying pooja to protecting and preserving our heritage.

Ranawaka, an old Royalist I am told, claims that this was just road expansion and not new construction. Mr Ranawaka is right of course. This is not construction, it is destruction. How could one expand a road without disturbing and digging up the earth by the roadside, cutting trees and foliage on both sides and affecting the ecological balance?

Who actually benefits from it, pray? Perhaps he should name them so the public would know the beneficiaries and how many of them.

Sinharaja is the best know of the forest reserves facing ecological damage and destruction. During the last government there was a major hue and cry about the involvement of politicians and of their relatives in encroachments into Wilpattu.

While writing this I came across an investigative video by Ada Derana exposing the deforestation of a wetland in Anawilundawa sanctuary in Puttalam where already several acres have been cleared apparently for shrimp farming.

How this could happen so blatantly at the expense of the environment of this country can only be with the help of the politically powerful and influential. The fact that this criminal tragedy occurs in various parts of the country is proof of this.

(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.)