Abolishing 05/2001; a re-visit to the mistakes of 1965?

Harvesting tobacco in lowland Mahiyangane

With the new changes taking place with regard to our environment, it seems like the time has come to look back into our past and heed the lessons learnt 'once upon a time’.

Even though Ceylon was granted a Dominion Status (semi-independent polities under the British Crown) in 1948, the economies of Tea, Rubber, and Coconut our main foreign exchange-earners were still controlled by the Sterling Companies. The Brown Sahib in parliament only had to provide for the necessary legislation that favored this economy.

Things went smoothly until troubles started with the death of the first Prime Minister in 1952. There was a ‘Premier Stakes in 1952’, the assassination of the sitting Prime Minister in 1958, the failed ‘Ceylonese coup d'état attempt in 1962’, and the defeat of the government on the ‘Press Take-over Bill’ in 1964. The economy was stalling with hardly any growth. But Ceylon was still considered, South Asia’s ‘blue-eyed boy’ in the Commonwealth. Malaysia took us for example and slashed their jungles and planted Oil-Palm, the developing Port of Colombo was taken as an example by Singapore.

The Dudley Senanayake government of 1965 was a stable one and he was determined to pick up the stalling economy and a campaign named ‘Grow more Food’ was launched. The intension was to bring every piece of cultivable land under a cropping calendar. High yielding paddies were introduced and agricultural research and extension reached the farmer. The project showed better economic figures but was not adequate. The programme was extended to develop cash crops with added value and convert natural forest to economic forest introducing timbers that had a market value. The country had a 30% forest coverage then and much of the land was under the crown.

There was no political opposition to the programme; Wijeweera’s JVP was in its infancy. There was no ‘Ruk Reka Ganno’ or any such organization to oppose the felling of forests. The only organization for the protection of the environment was Thilo Hoffman’s ‘Wildlife & Nature Protection Society’. However, Hoffman’s protests came much later in 1971/1977 when they decided to cut the Sinharaja for plywood. Hoffman’s efforts were successful, he did not have to agitate on the road for his position at A. Baur & Company Ltd was adequate to be heard by the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Hanguranketha & Walapane in the Nuwara Eliya District.

Crownland was offered to companies to invest in them and earn the much needed foreign exchange. Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) a subsidiary of the British American Tobacco Company (BAT) took the initiative to open up lands in the Mahiyangane / Minnipe area for tobacco cultivation. They provided all the inputs from seeds to chemicals, fertilizer, and the technology to the local farmer. Processing the harvest was also given to the local entrepreneurs assisted by the CTC who in return purchased the whole of the processed product. This was a sound investment to the local entrepreneur and casual labor migrated to these areas looking for prosperity. CTC did not stop at Mahiyangane but extended cultivation into the central massif in Hanaguranketha and Walapane.

Hanaguranketha and Walapane located in the leeward side of the central massif has a low rainfall that favored tobacco cultivation. CTC provided for the extension service in these areas by opening Depots in every township. Unlike in the flatter terrain, Walapane and Hanaguranketha were hilly and mountainous with slopes under 45 degrees. This was not an issue for the people who opened up the shrub forest stripping the mountainsides bare of vegetation preparing lands for tobacco. Harvested tobacco needed to be cured and dried in barns. Fuelwood needed to warm these barns was sourced by felling the highland forests. This destroyed the only surviving virgin forest cover in the area. The people were happy for they all made quick money. There was no risk in the investment as the CTC guaranteed the purchase of the harvest. The government was happy with the growth in the economy and the CTC balance sheets carried the story of success.

However, there was no government agency or authority to regulate and study the impacts on the environment caused by opening up large extents of forestland in the mountains. The destruction to the forest cover and the depletion of the nutritious virgin soils through erosion brought disaster to the area in just four to five years. The unstable soils in the highly sloping land made the hills to slide with the slightest precipitation. The water table dipped far down and the streams went dry. The rainfall which was favorable for tobacco was delayed and drought set-in; ultimately the people in Hanaguranketha and Walapane were enlisted to a government-sponsored relief programme.

The CTC was observed to be answerable to this environmental disaster and was made accountable to mitigate the situation. The tobacco cultivation in Hanaguranketha and Walapane got to an end. CTC launched a project with the assistance from Dr. Ray Wijewardane (free of charge) to bring back a green cover to the hills through the ‘Sloping Agricultural Land Technology’ (SALT); planting Gliricidia sepium. CTC reportedly provided the technical support and the Gliricidia to apply SALT techniques and made it mandatory for all tobacco farmers who were already cultivating tobacco to implement this technique. CTC planned to use the Gliricidia as a bio-mass in their Dendro-power plant in Bibile, where a 10 Mega Watt power plant based on using Gliricidia as fuel had been developed. However, the project failed due to the unavailability of adequate Gliricidia but there was a noticeable build-up of the soil” in just three years.

Contrary to all this mayhem CTC received the 'Worldaware Award for Sustainable Development' in the UK for the SALT programme. But Dr. Wijewardene was publicly criticized for involving CTC in his initiative to introduce SALT as a technique to preserve the soil in agriculture in these lands.

The dry zone jungles were also leased to other companies to cultivate value-added timber. It was common knowledge then, for a famous textile manufacturing company to open up large extents of dry zone forestland in the Thanamalwila and Uda-Walawe areas for Teak Plantations.  The capital for the investment was from the sale of the felled timber to the Government Timber Department.

Kumaragama, a stumpy teak plantation destroyed by elephants within the Udawalawe Park 

The remnants of this disruption are seen in the Uda-Walawe National Park and Habarana areas. The teak stumps sprouting around the elephant habitat was once virgin forestlands that were a habitat to all wildlife.

Today after 50 years the government is looking at opening up these re-generating forests once more for economic growth.  Not heeding to the lessons learned back in 1965.

Unlike then, today there is resistance from numerous environmental organizations. There is mandatory regulations that need to be followed to assess possible damage to the environment. The forest cover has depleted to 17% which was 30% in 1965. But the government is deaf and cussed showing vehement on its mission. What they don’t seem to understand is that the consequences today will not be the same as then but definitely severe and harsher.