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A recent report in the Daily News stated that an Open Wildlife
Sanctuary will be set up in Hambantota and that other than deer,
giraffes and such animals, lions will be introduced as a special
attraction. Apart from the Dehiwala zoo, the only place where lions were
on public display was at the Ahungalla 'zoo' - but here, they were doped
so much that boys sat by their bodies to pose for photographs. The
Sinhalese claim to be from the lion race of Sinhabahu and even the flag
of Sri Lanka depicts a majestic lion with a sword in its hand.
Given the lion's endangered status, lion conservation is of global
significance and national pride. The endangered Asiatic Lion now
survives in and around the Gir Sanctuary and National Park spread across
the Indian Districts of Gujarat, Amrel and Junagadh. But the present-day
lion habitat includes a portion of the Bhavnagan District as well. The
Persian Lion survives as a single, free-ranging animal only in the Gir
forest and nowhere else in the world.
Villagers on the periphery of Gir are said to have enormous tolerance
and immense love for the big cat. The resilience of the king of the
beasts which moves with ease, nonchalance and majesty across a mosaic of
land-use areas be they crop fields or otherwise, is admirable. This
relationship and state of affairs augurs well for the future well-being
of the lions. The people around the lion conservation sanctuary, love
and take pride in the lion. They are of opinion that the forest existed
because of lions. Communities living in proximity to forests have
co-existed with lions peacefully for generations due to tolerance.
However, this cannot be taken for granted and indeed this attitude is
likely to change owing to changing aspirations and circumstances.
It is on record that three generations of the Nawabs of Junagadh were
involved in lion conservation. At present 97 villages exist in the
eco-fragile zone within the 5 km boundary of Gir. The districts are not
without human-carnivore conflicts. Loss of livestock and encounters
leading to death or injury to people are issues of conflict. The
animosity against lions predating on livestock has been eased through
timely management intervention including the partial removal of resident
communities from the Gir Preserved Area and the introduction of monetary
compensation for livestock losses. Incessant conflict mitigation is an
important part of present day carnivore management.
The dilemma of prioritising wildlife conservation over the interests
of local communities is the first level issue that often needs to be
addressed.
The magnitude of such a conflict, villagers attitude and mitigation
are the three aspects of carnivore conservation management. It is a
complex which requires tremendous vision and careful planning. The free
movement of lions crossing habitation into available natural habitats
will have to be facilitated failing which, localised or restricted lion
presence within an area can escalate conflict.
For this reason, development activities such as constructions of
roads around the sanctuary should be planned with caution. Introducing
lions to an Open Wildlife Sanctuary in Sri Lanka should be thoughtfully
done. All measures should be adopted to ensure that it would not lead to
a human-lion conflict similar to the human-elephant conflict experienced
in the elephant infested parts of Sri Lanka. A cue could be taken from
the Gir Sanctuary and National Park and the villagers living in the
vicinity, for this purpose.
HARSHI NADIE PERERA – PILIYANDALA
Recently we witnessed on television, tons of fresh vegetables being
loaded into lorries to be disposed as garbage. The grievance of the
vegetable growers was that they could not obtain a reasonable price for
their products and also that there were no buyers.
It was heart-rending watching such large quantities of vegetables
being destroyed at a time when people in other parts of the country are
compelled to pay exorbitant prices for vegetables, and also when a
scarcity of vegetables prevail. Farmers toil hard to produce vegetables.
They spend much energy to till the land, manure the plants, water
them, nurse their growth and transport the produce to the market.
The then Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena initiated a programme to
decentralize the Dambulla Economic Market by opening up sub-economic
centres in various parts of the country.
A building so erected in Boosa with much funds spent on the project,
was sadly not utilized for this specific purpose.
It is now used by the Examiner of Motor Vehicles of Galle to conduct
motor-cycle tests. It is high time that the authorities adopted measures
to safeguard the economy of vegetable growers and simultaneously meet
the needs of the consumers island -wide. I suggest that the Ministry of
Trade, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Sri Lanka Railway
Department draft a joint scheme to buy vegetables wholesale at the
Dambulla Economic Centre and transport them to selected agents in
important towns in the country where they could be sold at fair prices
so that the farmers' grievances could be addressed.
As the country in on its way to development, precautions must be
taken to protect the farmer economically.
R.L. GURUGAMAGE – DODANDUWA
Rumours are around the corner that prostitution is to be legalised. A
local woman who was arrested in a police raid had stated that she was a
widow with five children and was compelled to take to this profession
due her to poverty, and as she had no other source of income to run the
family. A large number of foreign women who operate in some of the high
class hotels, night clubs, karkoas are found in this trade, classified
as the oldest profession in the world.
Over fifty years ago, Dr. A.P. De Soysa moved a motion in Parliament
to legalise this profession in the country known as Ceylon then. Had
that been implemented there would not be any kind of diseases such as
HIV etc. in the country today.
In recent times too, some Members of Parliament as well as of the
Colombo Municipal Council moved similar motions but nothing has taken
place.
H.G.P. JAYASEKERA kadawatha
In a recent newspaper statement the National Trilingual Co-ordinator
Dr. Sunimal Fernando had said that 80% of Vanni Tamils are willing to
learn Sinhala. What Dr. Sunimal Fernando said is undeniably true, but
the reality now is that more than 80% of the people in the Vanni are
keen on learning Sinhala and English. This could be attributed to the
post war situation in the North where people have had more professionals
like doctors, nurses and businessmen coming from the South to help and
work with them which situation has created a need for both the Tamils
and Sinhalese to learn each other's language with interest. This is
because Tamil speaking children sitting for the grade 5 scholarship
examination are tested for their proficiency levels in these two
languages on a limited vocabulary level. This is the case with Sinhala
speaking children too, as they have to learn Tamil and English for the
scholarship examination.
With the launch of trilingual education, the National Plan for a
Trilingual Sri Lanka has taken a steady start through an
institutionalised, focussed and continuous monitoring method. But one
cannot avoid questioning how seriously the trilingual education policy
is implemented in other parts of the country outside the North and East.
Only when the trilingual education policy is implemented in all
provinces will we be able to envisage a Trilingual Sri Lankan Society.
S.A. CROOS - MANNAR
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