The serene beauty of the Horton Plains reserve is fast vanishing. Wildlife Department officials fight a losing battle to protect the plains with their meagre staff against hordes of visitors who make it a place for fun and frolic. Tharuka Dissanaike reports :
What started off as boyish fun ended in disaster for R. Pushpakumara. The seventeen year old's playful dive into a deep water hole by the Baker's fall at Horton Plains was certainly his last. As his friends stood by in shock, Pushpakumara was sucked into the swirling water, lost in its dark cold depths. The next day we watched as Wildlife Department trackers, villagers and relatives, tried hard to retrieve the body using barbed wire loops attached to a strong nylon rope weighed down by an iron. It was evening, on Sunday when the body was found, lodged some 35 feet under icy water.
To Department officials this incident is all too symbolic of the state of the National Park. The Horton Plains National Park appears to suffer from the serious problem of over-visitation and lack of control over visitors, who are allowed to trek through a good part of the park, leaving a trail of devastation and pollution in their wake.
Trackers say that there is usually a board warning visitors not to bathe
at the falls. But this notice is very often stolen, broken or thrown down
the fall itself by groups of youth who visit the Park simply to have some
'wild fun'. Last week a group of boys set fire to the plains destroying
500acres of endemic bamboo and grass.
These are but the more obvious crimes committed against the Plains. Visitors appear to have no qualms about littering, picking flowers, shouting and hooting, drinking and smashing bottles against rocks as they walk to and back from World's End.
All these are prohibited but that does little to deter them. A tracker recalled an incident where he stopped a man from taking a bottle of arrack in through the gate. A while later, the same man came in again with a child of about seven When the tracker insisted that he check the youngster's 'school bag' she began to wail. Inside the bag was the bottle of arrack.
It is different in parks like Yala, where tourists can go in only by vehicle and then too, no one is allowed to disembark unless at a few designated spots. At Horton Plains, when a visitor enters the Park and buys a ticket to walk to World's End at 6 am, he can stay on until 7 pm and walk around as he pleases inside the protected area.
On the trails, one will find everything from cigarette butts, to plastic bags, to biscuit wrapping to stale food indiscriminately thrown. The crystal clear streams of the Plains are littered with plastic bottles and siri siri bags. The trees are carved with people's names and hearts. The large board proclaiming the National Park, is defaced with bright white paint. Other nameboards around the Park have either been scratched or broken or stolen.
Trackers, Wildlife enthusiasts, genuine nature lovers and foreigners coming to enjoy the grandeur of Horton Plains lament the state of things, but a quick solution evades all.
The Park cannot be closed to visitors. It does not seem fair to increase
the Rs. 18 entrance fee ( Rs. 2 for school children) just to deter groups
of wild youth, since it could shut out a large portion of the population.
"The government could introduce a system where visitors only travel by vehicle," said Department Official Lalith Wijithananda. "But that would spoil the natural beauty of the park."
Wild Life guards also suggest restricting the number of visitors by installing gates at Pattipola and Ohiya, or making large groups of visitors so that a tracker can accompany each group. Added to the burden of dealing with visitor pressure, Department hands have their own problems to concede. The Office at Horton Plains is severely short staffed. At the time of the fire, there were only six personnel there. "It's a very hard life, we have few facilities," a tracker told us.
Meanwhile the Department Office in Colombo has come up with ideas to combat problems that occur with heavy visitor arrivals. " By March 1, we will introduce a system where several NGOs will help out the Wild Life guards at Horton Plains to manage the visitors and tackle problems in the Park," Director, Department of Wild Life Conservation, Berty Jayasekera said.
He said that this system was introduced several years back but abandoned for unknown reasons. There are about 25 NGOs registered with the Department who are willing to carry out voluntary work at the Plains, during the 'peak' months upto May.
The Department is planning to create a fire belt along hiking trails, which will consist of a trench dug a few feet away from the path so that any fire will not spread into the forests and plains. The Director assured that this exercise will not affect the animals- sambhur, deer and leopard who roam the forests.
To 'feel and experience' Horton Plains one does not need arrack, drums and large reckless groups. People must realise and appreciate the Park if they are ever to respect its rules. It contains many plants that are endemic and are found only in the 7200 ft plains. It is home to the fast dwindling and elusive leopard, and large herds of majestic sambhur as well as many rare birds.
Two groups were arrested for setting fire to the Plains only days before the drowning incident. One group was travelling down the road to Ohiya when they set fire to a stretch of forest, which fortunately did not burn far. The next incident occured three days later on a hiking trail. One young boy admitted to the offence. The rest of the group had said that despite their protests, this youth had set fire to the plains.
When the Trackers and cadets of the Diyatalawa Army Camp, managed to thwart the fire, some 500 acres were reduced to cinders. Even now the blackened area, rolling grasslands and gnarled forests stand starkly against the rest of the plains, the Totupola kande rising majestically over it. If convicted, the offenders could face one to five years rigorous imprisonment, Wijithananda said.
Continue to Plus page 2 * It was difficult and dangerous * And when freedom came
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