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Pining away
Villagers battle authorities over pinus and eucalyptus plantations in the Bandarawela hills. Kumumini Hettiarachci reports
The bulldozers rumbled in first cutting an angry red swathe of road into the mountains. The saws and cranes mounted on lorries rolled in next and the villagers' anxieties grew.

But these were not the first danger signs that their once-picturesque village of Welikadagama in Nirahawatte off the Bandarawela-Welimada Road, nestling in a vale surrounded by misty mountains was in serious trouble.

Their unease and concern began about five years ago when the crystal clear springs found in abundance around this farming village and the silvery streams snaking down the hillsides, dried up one by one.

Now the hilltops are shockingly bald, as if a giant mechanized hand has shaven off everything in sight, the farmers idle at home, the fields lie fallow and deep wells have to be dug to collect a few pots and pans of drinking water.

Pinus and eucalyptus plantations grown by the Forestry Department have been identified by the villagers as the root cause of the evil afflicting Welikadagama.

"It is bad enough that they planted pinus and eucalyptus 30-40 years ago on 180 acres of land when our fathers and grandfathers did not know the adverse effects, but we will not allow replanting because we know the consequences. We don't have water," says D.M. Lalith Chaminda, 25, of the quickly-mobilized villager group to safeguard water sources in the area. The organization set up three months ago is the Kandukara Jalamulashrayan Surakeeme Sangwidhanaya. Of the 180 acres, 25 acres had been cleared and replanted with the same crop two years ago.

Now the balance acreage is being axed fast and furiously, with not a thought about the monsoon rains which are about to descend, leaving the ground open for more and more erosion.

Pointing to a dried up stream, where large logs are strewn around, he says the Forest Department has granted permission to the Timber Corporation to "harvest" the pinus and eucalyptus. The Timber Corporation in turn has contracted out the job and the contractors are at work. "By November, the new trees will be planted, beginning another cycle of agony for us that will last another 30 years," he says.

And at the turn off to the village on the Bandarawela-Welimada Road, a white poster with black letters gives voice to the protests of the villagers. It boldly calls for the immediate halting of single-crop plantations of pinus or eucalyptus that cause devastation and a water scarcity.

The villagers have also not stopped at that. Under the guidance of the village monk, they have written a strong letter of protest to Environment and Natural Resources Minister A.H.M. Fowzie.

"We are happy that Minister Fowzie responded quickly and instructed the Forest Department to submit a report," adds Chaminda. A potato farmer all his life, P.G. Jamis, 62, accompanies us with a knot of villagers up the hillside to show the environmental devastation that has taken place due to pinus and eucalyptus cultivation. He spends most of his time at home now because cultivations are just not possible for want of water.

"There were many streams feeding Maathetilla Oya, a tributary of the Mahaweli Ganga, flowing below the village those days. Now there are none," he says as we cling precariously to the edge of the hillside and look down with trepidation.

Earlier, the 300 families in the village were getting drinking water from about 15 streams. "One tank was built in the sohonpitiya (cemetery) and another further within the natural forest and pipelines drawn to the village bringing pure drinking water to the school, temple and all the homes. Now the tanks are there but all the tap-lines have been pulled out, as there is no water," says D.K. Hemachandra, 42, the Farmer Group's Treasurer.

Diya parawal okkoma hindila, he says explaining that all the streams coming down the hillsides dried up as the pinus and eucalyptus trees gradually became bigger and sucked up all the water. "Those days the fields were very muddy, so muddy that we couldn't use cattle for ploughing - now they are very dry."

Hemachandra represents the village – a very successful farmer who has fallen on hard times because of the lack of water and attempts to eke out a living by tapping rain water.

Between 1990-96, on cultivating one-and-a-half acres of land with potato, beans, cabbage and tomato during both seasons, he earned around Rs. 300,000. "Now I am able to cultivate only about quarter acre," he laments and his earnings have seen a drastic drop to about Rs. 25,000.

Explaining the problems in the area, a villager turned environmentalist, armed with an agro-forestry degree, Athula Priyantha says, "We understand that these plantations have to be harvested now, but this is not the way to do it. This is mass destruction. It is taking place just before the rains, aggravating soil erosion. Instead of clear-cutting of trees leaving desert conditions there should be selective cutting, so that some areas remain protected, while the cleared areas are left for natural regeneration."

On a legal point, he says that according to the Gazette Extraordinary No. 772/22/1993 June 24, special authorization has to be sought for clear-cutting (large scale clearance) of any area over five hectares (about 12 acres) and authorization would be based on an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The other crucial issue is what the department will grow in the place of pinus and eucalyptus. If it is these two crops, another 30-year cycle of environmental problems will start for the villagers. The pinus needles create a thick carpet on the ground leaving no room for any undergrowth to form, he says picking up a fistful of the hard, dry soil.

"Usually, if the grasslands are not disturbed the seed bank lying in it will begin regenerating and small shrubs will come up followed by middle-sized trees and larger trees, creating a natural forest. Then the soil will be humus resulting not only in good growth of plants but also water retention," says Athula, conceding, however, that the process could take from 100 to 1,000 years.

Urging the growing of mixed crops as against single crops of any kind be it pinus, eucalyptus, jak, mahogany or anything else, he uses the model already available in the village in the form of a natural forest grown under a project launched by the Neo Synthesis Research Centre, an NGO.

"They grew shade trees on 14 acres of land and induced regeneration of the natural forest," says Athula. Claiming that the eucalyptus and pinus plantations should have been thinned out in the early stages, he pleads with the authorities to refrain from monoculture planting in large areas, especially the watershed areas. "The best would be mixed crops," he says.

And the villagers are more than willing to help the Forest Department in setting up mixed crop plantations. Taking into consideration the plight of the farmers, the authorities need to act with sensitivity, when considering future plans for the mountain slopes of Welikadagama. No one questions the fact that the country needs timber but the farmers in Welikadagama need precious water and a livelihood.

Chief Conservator defends the project
There is a Forestry Plan and no haphazard growing of pinus or eucalyptus, says Conservator of Forests, K.P. Ariyadasa, explaining that land use for activities such as housing and vegetable cultivations in Badulla and Haputale have raised many issues.

The villagers themselves set fire to the grassland to expand their vegetable cultivations, to get new grass as cattle feed and also for poaching, he said. Under the Forestry Plan certain areas have been earmarked for commercial cultivations and the cycle in those areas has been planned on a rotational basis such as growing trees for timber and resin, while in some areas they have been grown for protection and conservation. "We never cut down trees grown for protection and conservation, but in other areas the process takes place but is quickly replanted. We do need commercial plantations to meet the requirements of such sectors as the railway for sleepers," he stresses.

Depending on the site and the management, the damage to the soil is about 1 ton per hectare per year by pinus as opposed to badly-managed tea which could cause 10 tons per hectare per year, he says.

About the timing of the felling, the Conservator says they tell the Timber Corporation to start clearing in January-February, but due to the workload it gets to be October. "We begin planting again in November, so once in a 30-year cycle some areas may be open to rainfall causing erosion but not that much," he assures.

He said a team has already studied the timber working cycle and natural regeneration in Ratnapura and Kalutara and will do the same for Badulla, Nuwara Eliya and Matale.

Badulla Divisional Forest Officer S.C. Palamakumbura said he would be submitting a report to the Conservator-General on the issues raised by the villagers of Welikadagama.

Meanwhile, Conservator-General of Forests Sarath Fernando said 1.5 million hectares are under forests in Sri Lanka. Of this, 150,000 hectares are under forest plantations, of which only 30,000 comprise pinus and eucalyptus.

The water in Welkadagama must have dried up because the forests may have been grabbed by villagers for home gardens or vegetable cultivations, he added.

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