News
Wilpattu reserve endangered
The Wilpattu reserve has once again come under threat with vast extents of land belonging to the reserve being cleared.
Recently over four acres of forest land north of Wilpattu near the Viadhikulam Tank was set on fire. It has also come to light that the Mannar District Secretariat is planning to take over a portion of the buffer zone -around 800 acres of the forest reserve- for ‘public welfare service,’ in an area around 1km from the bank of the Modagam Aru which falls within the Wilpattu sanctuary.
The Modagam Aru
In 2014 the former president, taking cognizance of massive protests headed by environmental organizations and Buddhist clergy, temporarily halted the clearing of more than thousand acres of forest land within this reserve. It has now come to light that the District and Divisional Secretariats are again planning to take over the thick forest close to the Modagam Aru where the present Wayamba Naval Commanding Quarters and the Mullikulama Bharana Navy Base to be utilized for what they say is public use.
However, M.Y.S. Deshapriya of the Mannar District Secretariat said no such decision had been taken.
But environmentalists insist plans to clear the forest have been taken and claim a letter has been sent from the Mannar District Secretariat to the Director General of the Wild Life Department regarding the takeover of part of the land on the buffer zone surrounding the navy camp.
They also claim that in the said letter the Director General Wild Life has been asked to identify land in the buffer zone to be released. The letter adds the department is bound by national policy to release such land.
A human-elephant conflict in the making… fences are being pulled down signaling plans are afoot to open reservation lands for human settlements
Settlers in demarcated plots of land are a reality in the Wilpattu reserve
The picture speaks for itself. Permanent dwellings are already coming up in the reserve.