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Cecil Dharmasena Continues his journey through the country's forgotten parks
Reopen Kumana, Lahugala
Kumana village which has a history of about 175 years had been abandoned in the early 1990s after terrorist attacks. Most of the inhabitants ended up in Mahaweli system C. Others settled in and around Panama. The latter yet go to this abandoned village to pluck coconuts, to fish in the lagoons and do a little hunting on the side. These settlers are said to have come there originally after the Uva liberation struggle against the British colonialists in 1817-18. Ancestors of the Kumana folk had come from Uva and Wellassa after the British forces began their genocidal campaign against the Sinhala villagers. These people had spent a precarious and tough existence and Kumana had produced some of the finest trackers in the Wildlife Department.

From a distance, the tall coconut trees indicated the spot where the village had stood. A few wells and foundations of houses remain. The school building is the only structure yet standing and appears to be used by hunters and fishermen who camp there regularly. At the turn-off to the village is a tomb painted red said to mark the spot where a villager called Sumathipala, killed by a wild buffalo, was buried.

The following morning, after a quick cup of coffee, a long walk upriver revealed much. We had to be very careful looking out for elephants and especially for wild buffalo. One can see and smell an elephant ahead or at least hear it feeding. But a buffalo is a silent and dangerous creature from which one could hardly escape. So we walked slowly, single file, keeping silent, smelling the air and listening to all the jungle sounds ahead. On a foot path leading to the river there were fresh bear tracks made a few minutes ago. The animal had stopped every few yards to dig into little ant-mounds and scratch for small tubers and roots. A bear has long claws which it uses to break into termite mounds, termites being one of its favourite foods. The tracks on the wet riverbed looked remarkably human but turned slightly inwards because that's the way bears walk.

Further on, a fresh pile of elephant dung and large oval tracks indicated the path taken by a huge bull elephant from the river back into the forest. Many forest birds including the Malabar pied hornbill, the yellow-browned bulbul, black-capped bulbul, scimitar babbler, iora, azure flycatcher, fantail flycatcher, black-headed oriole, several species of barbets and paradise flycatchers kept us enthralled. Apart from the massive Kumbuks lining the river banks, large Mee trees, Owila, Timbiri, Panu-nuga, Wal-ehetu (a fig which grows around and strangles other trees), Karanda, Burutha (Satinwood) and large numbers of Halmilla trees of all sizes were common in this riverine forest.

Suddenly, a crimson-backed woodpecker began drumming a loud tattoo on a dead branch of a tall tree. The sound echoed through the forest while the sudden "honk" of an alarmed sambhur was a sure sign that a leopard was on the prowl. The sun was high and we were hungry. So back we went for a hearty breakfast of bread, dhal curry and sambol washed down with plain tea and juggery.

The park looked neglected and forlorn. The once famous Kumana villu, formerly teeming with birds, is a sorry sight indeed. Most of the mangroves ('kirala') have died out probably due to lack of water being retained in the villu. This villu is fed by a channel opening into the Kumbukkan-oya near its exit to the sea. During the dry season, a sand bar forms across the river mouth and as the water backs up, the villu gets filled. Subsequently, the sand bar gets breached and water flows out to sea. This periodic flooding creates the necessary conditions for growth of mangroves.

It looked like the mangroves were regenerating in some spots. There were some new leaves in a few branches and several hundred painted storks were perched on these mangroves in different parts of the villu. The old boat-house lay in ruins and the villu appeared shallow due to silting. Although earlier reports spoke of large scale hunting of birds and cutting down of the 'kirala' this did not seem true. The actual problem seemed to be lack of sufficient water being retained in the villu and the natural silting up which is a long term natural process. The resultant slow dying of the mangroves causes fewer birds to come there for perching or nesting. In time, the villu is bound to shrink further as more silting occurs. Maybe some careful de-silting around the periphery might help, but this must be done (if at all) after a comprehensive study.

The only animals we saw were a few lone elephants around the Kumana villu and at Helawa. There were no herds. The few deer we saw were hiding in thick cover. In former times, herds of over 500 in the Bagura plains were not uncommon. In the late evenings a few wild-boar were seen running across the road. The park looked disturbed and empty but would certainly spring back to its former glory if adequate protection is afforded.

The 'devale' at Madametota is a source of extreme disturbance. We were informed that it grew in popularity when access to the jungle shrine of Kebilitta (about 30 km. upriver) was cut-off due to terrorist incursion. There were several groups coming in every day, some walking through the park carrying their children, baggage and cooking utensils. Some camp overnight at Bagura and others would simply camp under trees along the way. Such large groups and their cooking fires disturbed the animals and polluted the park. Tractor and truck loads of pilgrims from Panama, Pottuvil, Akkaraipattu and Batticaloa arrived even at night. Some of these Tamil pilgrims were very curious but friendly folk who would come over for a chat to our camp-site and they would bring along 'mung-kiributh', the standard offering cooked for the gods. Once the park is opened, this 'devale' will have to be relocated to Okanda or some place beyond.

At every lagoon, one can see fishermen fishing with line and net. We could see small groups far away on the sand dunes where the lagoons meet the sea. Even in Kumana villu, fish and crabs were caught in numbers.

The fording point to Block 2 of Yala was about a kilometre upriver from our camp. During our stay, a group of campers from Colombo crossed over to Block 2 but did not proceed very far. They had camped at Bagura and had seen a black-necked stork.

In those days, we would turn off at Bagura and drive upto Bambaragastalawa, where there were rocky hillocks with large caves and 'kemas' (rock water holes). There was a large statue of a reclining Buddha in one of these large caves atop the hill. Beyond Bambaragastalawa, the lonely jungle track led to Lenama-eliya with its uniquely beautiful park like country full of 'divul' trees (woodapple). It is the famed spot for the legendary "Nittawo", a kind of dwarf ape-men who are supposed to have existed there long ago. It is also famous for Sri Lanka's largest leopards, the "Lenama koti". In 1977, at Lenama, I came across a leopard and its kill of a small buffalo calf halfway up a divul tree. The angry mother buffalo was charging around, trying to rescue its already dead offspring.

The road along the Kumbukkan-oya towards the famed "Kebillitta" devale was overgrown. All these roads including those to Bambaragastalawa and Kumana wewa had been washed away and are overgrown and impassable. We had also been warned of buried land mines and did not want to risk exploring these areas.

The Department of Wildlife Conservation is now in the process of reopening most of the parks which had been closed over the last decade and a half. Lahugala and Kumana too should receive adequate attention and could easily revert back to their former glory.

Two decades ago, this fascinating south-east corner of our island was remote and primitive. The tentacles of civilization had not penetrated it. On our way back, we gave a lift to a little ten year old boy from a village near Lahugala upto Siyambalanduwa. He was attending a computer class. It was amazing how quickly civilization and modern technology had spread right into this former jungle.

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