E 01 - Sri Lanka’s First Expressway…….did the EIA address the impact?

E 01 – Sri Lanka’s first ever expressway from Kottawa in Colombo to Matara in the southern province was partially commissioned  up to Galle, a main city in the south of Sri Lanka  on 27th November 2011.

To me and many other Galle wallahs employed in Colombo, home is now an hours drive away. This is the most welcome happening in this year to those of us who drive to Colombo for employment every Monday and back home on Friday. Gone are the days when we had to leave home by 4.30 or 5.00 a.m for work on a Monday morning driving for 3hrs and 30 mints . We could now leave comfortably by 6.30 a.m and be at work by 8.00 in Colombo. On Friday we are home for dinner on time.

However there are others that visit the highway and do not make it home for dinner. Numerous were the fauna that met with fatalities during the first few weeks.The canine population that lived off the workforce that left leaving them behind trapped between the fences perished among the speeding traffic. The dogs were not alone. A few creepy reptiles, iguanas, water monitors, black naped hare, mongooses, ring-tail civets and feral cats with a few peacocks also pass away day to day having been run over by the speeding traffic. The fatalities is much in the section beyond the Welipenna inter-change where the highway traverses through rubber plantations where the density of the fauna is high unlike in the other section that runs more on marshy land.

The authorities have given time to mend and repair the fences; this is done but the problem seem to exist still. Did not the Environmental Impact Assessment [EIA] have means to mitigate this issue. I’m sure the presence of the fauna was known and mitigation action taken by providing underpasses for terrestrial fauna. The non presence of wild boar fatalities show that the fence is active and the underpasses are working. The hare would be those trapped within while civets and mongooses and the monitors cannot be stopped by a fence.  The avian fauna is special and the attraction of the  peacocks to the open expanse on the road early morning in the Divithura area is so sad. A fair number will be lost until they get accustomed to the speeding vehicles.
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There happens to be an all new scenario where the EIA may not have accessed. That is the avian fauna and the canines that are attracted to the carrion  left on the road. There is a  fair number of Brahamini kites and crows that take off from carrion when a vehicle approaches. Misjudging the speed knocks them down as well.

It is also noted that the present canine numbers are found at the inter-change points where no entry restrictions apply. Also it should be noted that we Asians do not take responsibility of our pets as in the western world where they are reared on a leash. 

If anyone opines that the EIA lacks in addressing these issues, I feel it is wrong to say so. It is more a case of having an expressway or not. Eventually the avian fauna may get accustomed to the speeds and the canine population need to be kept at bay for which we are partly responsible. 

However when you encounter two home reared goats crossing the highway at leisure…. it’s we on the road who are at risk, and the EIA did not access  this impact.

[photographing them was not possible at 90 kmph]

The HistoricThorny Bamboo of Pethangoda

Sri Lanka is home for 10 native bamboo species and 7 introduced bamboo species. This is as per research done by Soderstrom and Ellis 1998. The chart below gives the science of them.

Native and Introduced Bamboo Species in Sri Lanka

Source: Soderstrom and Ellis 1998

Species	Local Name
Native
* Arundinaria densifolia1	Bata
* A. debilis	Bata
* A. scandens	Bata
* A. floribunda	Bata
* A. walkeriyana
* Pseudoxytenanthera monadelpha	Bata
O Davidsea attenuate	Bata
* Ochlandra stridula Syn. O. talboti	Bata
* Dendrocalamus cinctus	-
* Bambusa bambos	Katu Una (Spiny bamboo)
Introduced
Bambusa vulgaris	Kola Una (Green bamboo) Kaha Una/Rana Una (Yellow bamboo)
Bambusa multiplex	Cheena Bata (Chinese bamboo)
Dendrocalamus giganteus	Yoda Una (Giant bamboo)
Dendrocalamus membranaceus	Una
Dendrocalamus asper	Una
Dendrocalmus strictus	(Male bamboo)
Thyrsostachys siamensis Syn. T. regia	Siam bamboo (Thai/Male bamboo)

* Endemic species; 'O' Endemic genus
¹ Most of the Arundinaria sp. are now assigned to Sinarundinaria

It is seen that the yellow and the green varieties that we come across day to day are introduced in the country. The native bamboo is the smaller varieties that are mostly forest plants known as bata.

The native species Bambusa bambos known as Katu Una has historic legend. The Katu Una gove at Ruwanwell is centuries old and is protected by the Department of Archaeology; it is a thorn from this  bamboo grove that pierced the foot of King Seethawaka Rajasinghe at the Pethangoda Royal  Garden, while warring with the Portugese. The king is said to have succumbed to the injury as a result of infection caused.

 Bambusa bambos Katu Una (Spiny bamboo)

However I am of the belief that there are more bamboo species introduced in the country since 1998. This species shown below that I photographed was at Ratganga - Ratnapura close in the vicinity of a concrete jungle that is being built for the modern day pilgrim known as Punchi - Dambadiva.

Beeralu Una 

The natives call it Beeralu Una due to its clumpy formation. They were unable to explain of its occurrence in the area and also believe it to have been passed on as a ornamental garden plant

The Undesirables in the National Parks.

Recently it was reported, of a leopard cub being run over by a speeding jeep within the Yala National Park. Many were the criticism on the social net working groups that spelt high adrenal language on the new digital photo maniacs of Colombo chasing leopards in Yala, who are more in the liking to make shots similar to those in the coffee table books that came in numbers recently in the name of reviving Sri Lankan wildlife for tourism. 

Photography today is for anyone who could afford a digital SLR; unlike then when you needed to get the correct film speed, correct exposure through metering, light control through filters etc. where you had the results only a week or two later. We are now in an automated era and it is only a case of point and shoot.  

The black and white leopards created by Nihal Fernando of Studio Times on celluloid then, are now priceless marvels. 

Times have changed; many people are in the habit of traveling and visiting delicate habitats and National Parks [NP]. With the revival of the tourist industry and the re-introduction of the Sri Lankan National Parks; the visitor numbers multiplied many folds. Increased visitor numbers became proportional to the increased undesirables among them. For these elements visiting a NP was more a count on the species seen rather than enjoying wildlife. On the other hand the authorities; the Department of Wildlife Conservation [DWC]  not having a program on knowledge to be passed on to the visitor is a very pathetic situation. I do remember there was a time when we could learn much about the wild from a tracker then unlike today.  

I recall a visit to Yala in 2009 with my family and I explained to them the graviportal locomotion of the elephant. How the elephant walks when compared to other terrestrial animals. Example the buffalo uses diagonally opposing legs; that is the front left and right back legs move forwards then the front right and left back legs move and so on. But in the case of the elephant it moves both legs on one side and then both legs on the other side. This is required to keep equilibrium, with the center of gravity of the huge body mass.  It was the young tracker who was most interested and commented that ‘apita meva kauruth kiyaladunne ne’ [nobody taught us these things]. To me this was explained in the 1960 s by a wildlife tracker at Yala NP. 

This is not the fault of the young tracker but the authorities for not having a viable knowledge giving mechanism. I do remember in the mid 80s when a university academic was to become the Director Wildlife and introduced a scientific knowledge programme for the field officers funded through GEF the Global Environment Facility. The result was that he became the shortest served director; the whole department united to unseat him.  

Opening up strict natural reserves to cope with the increasing visitor number is discussed. This could even-out the density of the visitor, but opening new roads in the parks to cope the density will fragment the habitat. This will be an all new issue needing solution on a later date. 

GRAVIPORTAL LOCOMOTION

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Colours

Not many of us living in the tropics get to experience the four climatic seasons of the temperate zone. We are more familiar to the monsoon effected wet and dry climatic seasons of the tropics. I was at the right place at the right time in October 2011 as a member of our family visiting the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee USA. 

It is common to visit the Smokies in the Appalachian Range in the fall to glimpse the changing colour hues of the forest foliage before they are shed for the winter.  

The otherwise sleepy town of Gatlinberg becomes a renowned ski station with high activity during the winter.