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World Environment Day Special: Re -Forestation of Vanni

Sri Lanka has a ministry for environment protection in addition to a separate Ministry for forest conservation. Marine and aquatic resources fall under yet another Ministry. All in all, laudable ambitions.

But, what's happening in the North-East, the Tamil Homeland to protect the environment? Destruction. Nearly two decades of Military occupation of the North and parts of East has seen vast acreages of verdant jungles rich with valuable trees like Mahogany, Teak, Ebony, etc were denuded by the occupying forces primarily to transport the valuable timber to the south where these fetch a good price. Of course, if a civilian does it, it falls under the category of crime punishable with a heavy fine, imprisonment and confiscation. But this is being done by the state army and that too under the guise of "National security". Immunity therefore is in place so that the offenders "respectfully" carried on this "trade" under the eyes of Forest Conservation Officers. Vanni, Mother Nature's cradle of the North was fortunately freed of Sri Lankan Military occupation two years ago. The peasantry, who frequent the jungle to collect firewood, was shocked to see denudation done by the occupying Sri Lanka military. To them it was a horrifying sight, because they being farmers depend on rain for their agriculture and have for ages conserved their forests so that they will get sufficient rain for their livelihood. Better late than never, the Vanni peasantry with the assistance and guidance of the reforestation division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, have already started on a large scale reforestation program.

Down the line towards the Jaffna Peninsula, commencing from Elephant pass, one could see crownless palmyrah and coconut palms in thousands. They became crownless and remain as mere trunks because of the Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher and Artillery attacks of the Sri Lankan Army.

These apart, the occupying forces were engaged in an indiscriminate process of felling fruit bearing palmyrah and coconut to construct protective bunkers. Palmyrah has been the Mother Nature's gift to the arid Jaffna peninsula and was a fallback to the Jaffna peasantry during times of grain shortage and food scarcity, whether manmade like the economic embargo of the Sri Lankan government on the Tamil population or otherwise. This Palm, unlike other varieties, takes about two decades to bare fruition. In between it yields it's dry leaves and stems for thatching roof, fencing etc and is also a an organic fertilizer. Indeed the plamyrah palm and its life are intertwined with the life of the Jaffna peasantry. The Matured plamyrah timber is the main source of wood work in Jaffna's house construction. And to destroy this human friendly palm wantonly, tantamount to genocide.

An active plamyrah and coconut replanting scheme is already in operation, although it is going to take long number of years to come up and be of use to the Jaffna peasantry.

Appended below you find the statistics of the destruction of palmyrah and coconut palms in the various districts of the Tamil Homeland.

Destruction - Palmyrah Palms

District	Number existed	Number destroyed
Jaffna	3,500,000	2,500,000
Kilinochchi	3,500,000	1,000,000
Mannar	3,000,000	700,000
Mullaitivu	500,000	200,000
Vavuniya	80,000	9,000
Batticaloa	200,000	50,000
Amparai	40,000	6,500
Trinco	210,000	5,000
Male trees 42%		Female trees 58%

Destruction - Coconut Palms

Acreages of Land	Number existed	Number destroyed
59,575	4,724,600	1,500,000

06 June 2003

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