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| Monday, 22 April 2002 |
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by Florence Wickramage "Earth Day" falling today, 22nd April 2002, has drawn the attention of Non governmental Environmental Organisations to the increasing degradation of forests and drying up of natural water resources due to haphazard clearing of forests for development and settlement. Environmental Organisations have reacted sharply to the proposed clearing of the 2,198 hectares of the Mankulam forest reserve in Jaffna allegedly by the LTTE to resettle displaced persons. Executive Director of the Environmental Foundation Limited (EFL) Hemantha Vithanage pointed out that the Somawathiya Sancutary and the mangroves in Jaffna had been destroyed due to the 19 year conflict between the Government and the LTTE. He said mitigation was quite important at a time when the country's forest cover has declined to 18.5% and the green cover to 47%. However, clearing of forest land for development should conform to the National Environment Act. A spokesman for the Green Movement told the Daily News that the pollution and destruction of the Negombo Lagoon is a matter of serious concern. The country's demand for fish was met by the Negombo Lagoon with a rich harvest of around 110 metric tonnes of prawns about ten years ago, according to Mr. Anil Premaratne, the Director of the Coastal Resources Management Project. The fish harvests have been reduced by almost 99%. Around 2000 acres of land bordering the Negombo Lagoon has been cleared by encroachers and around 1000 buildings have come up in the area. Moreover, the Negombo Lagoon has become a boatyard where out-board motor boats anchor, spilling oil into the waters, thus polluting same and causing large shoals of fish to perish. He pointed out that parts of the lagoon are used by these boat-owners to throw overboard remains of decayed fish from out-dated stocks. The Green Movement representative told the Daily News that the rape of forest reserves by illegal timber felling and encroachment was drying up waterways. If this goes on unabated, the end result would leave our country as a barren and waste land. "Earth Day" has been declared by the United Nations and other agencies. Environmentalists point out that the government's attention and that of the institutions concerned should be directed towards the prevention of the destruction of Earth's resources still being carried on illegally in several places in the country. |
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