Nilaveli...... still has its splendour

Nilaveli; A beach front with its wide and tranquil sands; "Pigeon Islands" a kilometer away, was a secret locality in  Pura-male, Trincomalee in the sixties and even early seventies. The tourism that was to exploit Trinco and other locates in the east coast then, did not exploit Nilaveli...... until now. It still has only one hotel that exist to this day.

In the by gone era it was the Pigeon Islands that was of fame with the only true colony of  'Rock Pigeon' species that was to roost and exist on them; all the other Rock Pigeons that are encountered day to day in the city are but feral descendant of pets......  now pests.

Pigeon Islands  consists of two islands; the large island and small island. The large island is surrounded by a coral reef and is an extent about 200 m X 100 m. The small island is but a rocky outcrop. Them were designated as sanctuaries in the year 1963 based on the Rock Pigeon habitat and later declared National Parks in 2003.

I don't really get the criteria right of the Department of Wildlife Conservation [DWC] upgrading sanctuaries to  National Parks. All I have seen is when the numbers of people visiting a sanctuary  increases, it becomes a National Park with an entrance fee. It happened in Horton Plains, Bundala, Kaudulla and now Pigeon Islands.

  

Ever since the war ended and people started traveling with the new economic growth etc, Nilaveli was to be a frequented location and the boat rides to the Pigeon Islands became a thriving business. And here comes the DWC with an extra  fee for the boat rider.......... ? There is but hardly any Pigeons on them now but People; never mind what comes by to the delicate habitat from over visiting.

These pics were taken in 2010 when I was on assignment in Trinco and stayed overnight at the Nilaveli Beach Hotel.

Pigeon Island

Wide and Sandy

Blue is the Theme

Sky - Sea - Beach

Solitaire

Business

Relax

People are traveling 

 Sun Rise the Following Day

 

 

The ‘Oo’ gene… the British preferred…

Man’s primitive means of communication was the human voice.  Various sounds at various intensity levels may have been adapted to communicate, depending on the distance of the receiver. Beyond the distance of hearing; a symbolic note on leaf or papyrus, hand delivered would have fulfilled the need…. This is thought to be the inception of language.

When the distance was large and intercepted different communities having the same sounds and symbols giving different messages, the free flow of knowledge was interrupted. When a community was superior in knowledge, so was the language adopted by them.The superior language overran other languages. This is shown as the Western domination in the world.

The English Language became a ‘Kaduwa’ in Sri Lanka.

This domination is researched by Tissa Devendra, the english writer author GA [not forgetting the Sinahala writing GAA Leel Gunasekara, Amara Hewa Madduma & Amaradasa Gunawardana] in his book a Quest for Shangri-La. In this book he discusses how the Englishman set about writing  Sinhala sounds in the English language. There isn’t a formal way to interpret the sound ‘oo’ other than when in the use as in ‘book’, ‘look’ or ‘nook’. Thus he wrote Labukele Estate as ‘Labookellie Estate’. This deviation of writing was later adapted to show a social difference in society. Those Sinhala families who embraced the English culture and needed identification in the elite social class preferred writing their names in this form. They were the Goonathilake, Goonawardane and those that ended with an ‘e’ as in wardane, thillake and naike. He also says that these families invariably tendered to be Christians in the 19^th century, for the simple reason that the British favoured those in this faith.

However by the 20^th century with the spread of English education the not so elite preferred to write their names in the simple form with the use of the letter ‘u’ for ‘oo’ and ended with an ‘a’ for an ‘e’. Them now are said to outnumber the former as given in the new Telephone Directory, says Tissa Devendra.

The British left us independent in 1948………or was it the other way round? ……for their presence is very much felt even in this 21^st century. 

It’s a funny world…………………and if you can read these boards on the way to Badulla passing Bandarawela…..…you can be sure... you still have that 19^th century gene………… the British preferred.

 

It’s the habitat that keep them in location.

Heather Martin and Angela Savage both academics at the National University of Ireland Galway, were visiting Sri Lanka in July 1994 . They were living with friends, and were guests of my friend Prabath Senaratne. We were all in the Irrigation Department [ID] then, Prabath was in Colombo, Wilson Kulasooriya and I were stationed at Hambantota. On Prabath's request we  picked them at the Rest House and were off to Yala for two days; stopping over at Tissamaharama for provisions to keep us going for the two night stay. We were booked into the park bungalow at Katagamuwa and the journey commenced through the park all the way to Katagamuwa. The first night was very memorable being just after a full moon with clear vision, when we had nightly visitors at Katagamuwa. First it was an elephant and then a bear that came rustling in compared to the stalking elephant. The bear came straight to the stand pipe for water and had his fill from the plastic container and was gone. The two days was a show up of almost all the animal and bird species homed at Yala including a python that did a marathon crossing holding us for over 10 minutes for it to cross the road.  At the end both Angela and Heather pleased and fascinated with all that was seen inquired as to what keeps all these animals within the park. The answer was obvious……….. the habitat. 

Yes it’s the habitat that keep them in location.

My eight year stay at Hambantota with the ID in the eighties was a way of life that I always longed for. In the bush surveying for the right contour for the canals, encounters with the beasts and indefinite work stoppages until the elephants that had came from nowhere had decided to leave. Bundala then was not a National Park but a sanctuary with plenty of migratory birds, more elephants frequently crossing the main road at Andalla to the saltpans, jeeps were cheap in the trails of Bundala for visitors, no deaths due to elephants heard as today.…. Alas the flocks of birds then are no more now. Ever since the drainage water of Lunugam-wehera came into Bundala on its way to the Malala Lagoon, affecting the salinity, depth of water, vegetation, etc, etc. You may call it change of habitat if you like...........we are yet to lose it.

Strangely though the rice farming practiced in the dry zone of Sri Lanka is by irrigation and happens to be a process of changing habitat. It is this that keeps much of the bird life active year round during the Yala and Maha seasons. It’s amazing to see masses of water birds following the plough for grubs in the up turned earth.

It was in the Field Ornithology Group [FOGSL] that I came across a book by Ms. Tara Gandhi the wife of the then Ambassador to India in Sri Lanka; a science scholar and an active conservationist who contributed generously to the cause of FOGSL; a print of her thesis. This book carried an illustration of the change of habitat that is created by irrigation in rice farming. 

[Courtesy- Tara Gandhi]

This is a classic self explanatory lay out of the activity in irrigated rice farming in the dry zone.

Once the crop is harvested the fields become parched until the seasonal maintenance to the canal system is done and the water issue is re-commenced. During this time the habitat suits the larks and the pipits. Once the water is turned into the fields this habitat is no more and they move onto the grassy bunds and levees. Now it attracts the waders; stints, plovers, snipe, stilts, herons, egrets, ibis, storks, coucals, kingfishers, and if the time is right the migrant godwits as well, till the fields are ploughed and planted. During the growth stage the bee-eaters the drongo and the flycatchers feast on the avian insect pests that are attracted to the  plant. The standing water attracts the swamp hens, water hens, snipe, herons and ducks that feed on the snails and other floating algae.

When the paddy flowers and ripens the water is cut back and the standing water is no more it’s an all new habitation for the munias, parakeets and pigeons, the so called pests in rice farming arrive.  The other mammalian pests, the rodents that are attracted are dealt by the raptors; shikra, kites and the eagles during the day and  nocturnally by owls.

Once the crop is harvested the numerous pigeons and the doves feast on the harvest waste left in the fields and the larks and the pipits return until the next water issue is commenced.

It is strange to see this amount of bird life still active with the amount of pesticides and fertilizer being used though. After all habitat change is not always a negative factor. 'Isn’t it?'

Learning from a Nut-Plucker.....

This is Alagan Subramaniam [Subra];  descendents of South Indians brought to work in the Tea Gardens by the Colonial British. He is from the seventh generation and  is now a Sri Lankan national.

Subra lives in a state owned estate in Walahanduwa Galle, where his parents, grandparents his siblings all worked, tending the tea and rubber gardens. He does not work in the estate anymore but his wife Jayarani does, so they could still live in the abodes of the plantation.

Subra finds work outside which is more paying; the hard earned money is required to school his four children. "Educating the kids is my priority", he says. He feels the deprivation, as he's never been to school and cannot read or write.

His know-how in tending tea gardens from ground preparation to planting, pruning to manure application and harvesting is a complete package, learnt from his grandpa and papa. This he duly markets to the small home garden tea planter, that earn him a considerable sum for a month over and above what he would earn in the estate. His occasional assignments, plucking coconuts in small plots are more lucrative he says as he is paid per tree.

He is my visiting gardener and trusted caretaker in my long absences from home. His monthly services in my home garden includes plucking the three coconut trees. I am self sufficient with coconuts.  One day he tells me that come nine months from now, I would have to buy my coconut outside. I was curious of his prediction and inquired how on earth could you tell something happening in nine months to come. He then tells me that once the coconut flower blooms out, off the pod-case it takes one full year [12 months] to ripen.

I ask him if somebody told him so, to which he answers No…….. And my daughter who was then a second year science undergraduate confirms that the visual development of the coconut through pollination etc takes one full year. Furthermore the non-visible development within the crown of the palm had taken a full year as well. That is a nut that we consume has a development stage of two years. This is what she learnt at school and Uni.

Stamp depicting the King coconut

Going back to Subra; He tells me he was so curious to know its development and decided to learn the hard away. Yes the hard way …..He watched for a flower to bloom out off the pod-case on a palm in his garden and tied a trimming of cloth round it and noted the date. He then monitored the progress. Month by month the lower palm fronds would wilt and fall and the palm gained height and in the process his marked bunch was aging and entered the lower tiers of the crown and finally harvested in 12 months.

And now for his prediction;....... my tree has had two wilted flowers as a result of a long drought with minimal rain and he calculated the loss based on the age of the other bunches on the 12 month cycle and predicted what was to come in nine months.

He was deprived of school but his urge to knowledge made him experiment and learn for sure. I get the feeling that this was how the hunter-gatherer was to learn about the plants that he domesticated to become a farmer.

We seem to take for granted, what we learn at school. We hardly put them to use or question ourselves.

I am sure there are many more Subramaniams experimenting life this way, having  missed school; and what more when education is given free in this country.