Call to halt illegal encroachment of Hakgala Strict Nature Reserve
 

by Florence Wickramage

The Environmental Foundation Limited (EFL) has addressed an urgent appeal to the Government and the Department of Wildlife Conservation to halt immediately illegal encroachment of the Hakgala Strict Nature Reserve (HSNR) and ecologically sensitive sites.

The EFL also warns of a looming water crisis with the continuous degradation of Sri Lanka's forest cover including the Hakgala Strict Nature Reserve as the central highlands of Sri Lanka's water catchment areas.

These facts have been highlighted in the Policy Paper issued by the EFL as a follow up to the Open Forum on the preservation and protection of the Hakgala Strict Nature Reserve held recently with the Department of Wildlife Conservation. At this forum, all stakeholders, including conservationists, key Governmental organisations and institutions, wildlife enthusiasts and journalists had discussed to find ways to end the destruction of the HSNR.

Hitting hard at the DWLC for its failure to protect the HSNR, its mandatory duty, the forum points out that the blatant disregard of the law of the land in many cases with the direct support of the authorities, is continuing in the destruction of the HSNR.

Many parts of the HSNR have been cleared and encroached upon by small-scale cultivators to a distance of several kilometres inside the Gazetted boundary, and roads have also been cut leading further into the SNR.

Permanent and semi-permanent buildings have come up in cleared areas while another nearly four and a half kms. of the SNR have been cleared for tea planting.

EFL points out that immediate action is required to evict all occupants of SNRs and other protected areas, irrespective of their period of occupation or extent of holding; to ensure that no new encroachers are allowed to enter SNRs and that all existing and past encroachers be prevented from re-entering; that a public notice be released that land allocation in the HSNR is an illegal act; and a stated commitment from all political parties to uphold the laws regarding nature protection and to disallow squatting in SNRs.

Stating that land-grabbers are not 'really the poor' but other interested parties the Policy Statement points out that a concrete pledge by the Government and its donors be made to initiate measures to recognise the value of natural forests generally and protected areas specially, for water, and to reflect this role by according an adequate policy focus and investment funds to ecosystem protection.