The new road through the Wilpattu National Park hasbeen closed, assured Agrarian Services and Wildlife Minister S.M. Chandrasena, as environmentalists breathed a sigh of relief that saner counsel has prevailed.
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| A picture of destruction: This new road that cut through the park has now been officially closed. (File pic by Sajeewa Chamikara) |
"The road is closed. No one is allowed to use it now and I have instructed the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) to let the jungle reclaim it," stressed Minister Chandra-sena to the Sunday Times on Friday, pointing out that the road had caused the environment a "loku (big) damage".
Environmentalists, meanwhile, pointed out that cutting a road through the Wilpattu National Park linking Puttalam and Mannar is illegal and a blatant violation of the law.
The law is very clear, said environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardena, explaining that it is in black and white in Sections 3 and 6 of the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance. It is not only illegal for anyone to construct a road through a National Park but is also illegal to use it, he said.
Another environmentalist who has been fighting long and hard against this illegal road painted images of the serene and beautiful landscapes and also the unique villu system that makes the Wilpattu National Park extraordinary.
“The road has caused great damage to the flora and fauna of the National Park and will increase poaching and tree-felling within this protected area,” said environmentalist Udaya Sirivardana, focusing on the fact that there “never” was a public road through Wilpattu.
He said that the newly-cut but illegal road through the Wilpattu National Park has been called many names to try to justify its existence.
One is that it is the ‘Old Mannar Road’. The new road is certainly not the Old Mannar Road, said Mr. Sirivardana, explaining that the latter has reverted to the jungle. “The Old Mannar Road was never a National Park road and was usable only with great difficulty, that too only during part of the year. Only a small part of it lay along the newly-cut road.”
Another contention is that it is the B379, which existed only as a name on a list, said this Wilpattu-lover who has pored over maps and gone through documents with a fine-tooth comb. It is only the end-points of Elevankulam-Marichchukkadi that are defined in the documents, he said.
The bottom line, according to him, is that no road can be established through the Wilpattu National Park because it is illegal.
Challenging unjustifiable arguments that it is the “shortest route” between Puttalam and Mannar, another activist questioned whether the authorities would build a road through protected Sinharaja because the shortest route from Ratnapura to Galle was through this rainforest.
Another example would be the quickest route between Katugastota and Ampitiya being through the Dalada Maligawa premises. Will we build a road through it, he asked, explaining that attempts to justify the illegal road through the Wilpattu National Park were arguments in absurdity.
With a network of roads being established, there is a good route around the Wilpattu National Park now, he said.
Another nature-lover, pointing out the need not only to protect but preserve Sri Lanka’s forest cover in the light of the severe threats the world including our country faces from climate change, said that even though a part of this present illegal road was cleared in the 1980s during the war, it was abandoned when there were strong protests by conservationists.
The Sunday Times, since March 2010, has highlighted the massive destruction of the Wilpattu National Park due to this illegal road. Some of the articles, with photographs showing the rape and ravage of Wilpattu included ‘Wilpattu vandalised’; ‘Wilpattu – Look at the destruction’; ‘Walking through the destruction’; and ‘Land clearing’ continues at Wilpattu’. |
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