RAIN FORESTS OF SRI LANKA.
The legendary Sinharaja forest covers the steep hills & valleys of Rakwana in the south-western lowland of Sri Lanka.It is the island’s largest expanse of lowland rain forest & the only sizeable, undisturbed remnant.All that remains in the rest of the wet lowlands are the familiar,mist-laden forest patches scattered on hilltops and ridge crests,amere shadow of the magnificent forests which once covered the entire south-western sector of the country.
Rain forests are the natural vegetation type of the island’s ever-wet south-western quarter,which cover an area of around 22,500 square kilometres.These forests comprise both lowland rain forest of the hot humid lowlands below 1,000 metresin elevation,& the lower upper montains,that occur between 1,000 & 2,500 metres in eleevation.
Climatic Conditions
Rain forests occur under equatorial condition of constant temperature, high rainfall that is well distributed the whole year round & suitable soil conditions.In Sri Lanka, the south-western region receives an annual rainfall between 2,500 & 5,000 millimetres & is devoid of a dry period.The main sources of rain are the two monsoons that blow over the island,the south-west from November to January.It is the former however that brings the greatest amount of moisture. This wind is intercepted by the central hills of the island,resulting in precipitation on the ill slopes & lowlands of the south-western region.
There is little variation in temperature,that of the lowlands being 27 oC to 30 oC while in the upper montane region at round 1,800 metres in elevation,the temperature can drop to 16 oC or 17 oC.
The Importance of Rain Forests
The value of these forest is multifold.Of primary importance are the protective benefit they offer as watersheds and ameliorators of climate. The multi-storeyed vegetation of the forest, its leaf litter, root mat & humusrich, porous top soil all help to trap moisture which accumulates & is then gradually released into rivulets & streams.Rain forests thus help to sustain perennial sources of water such as the mojor rivers. These forests also make the climate more equitable, the physiological functioning of individual plants helping to moderate temperature, humidity & the level of cardon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Man has long recognised that the major benefit of the rain foest is as a source of timber. However continuous & rapid exploitation is fast reducing the available timber potential of these forests.Sri Lanka, most of the rain forest were depleted of select hardwoods such as calamander & ebony at the turn of the century. Today the depletion still continues in the lowland rain forests, where a range of light hard wood are being felled to support the plywood industry.
These foretss make an important contribution to the national economy. In addition, they are also important to those people who live in, & along their fringes. These people are dependent on the forest for most of their basic needs of food, shelter & medicine. The forest to them is not merely a source of wood for fuel & timber but also a store-house of a host of useful products such as rattan, food, medicine & spices.
One velue of rain forests often ignored is their recreational value. Forests provide opportunities for human relaxation in surrounding that are peaceful, healthy & above all, beautiful.
The protective & commercial value of forests is generally recognised by most people today. However, it is only the scientists perhaps who are aware of the biological importance of rain forests. In Sri Lanka, the rain forest ecosystem is the richest reservoir of flora & fauna of all ecosystems in he country. Furthermore, a high percentage of the plants & animals found in the rain forests are endemic to Sri Lanka & found nowhere else in the world. Of the 25 genera & 830 species of plants that are endemic to Sri Lanka. i.e. 24% of the island’s total flora, as much as 60% is found in the lowland rain forest, & of this 40% appear to be exclusively confined to it.
The forest are therefore reservoirs of genetic materials or ‘gene pool’ & contain a wide variety of plants & animals which are directly or indirectly of use to man. Yet, many are underutilized, & a large majority are as yet unscreened & may perhaps become important in the future. These wild species can be used to breed new strains or improve existing strains of domesticated plants and animals that are of use to man. Many species such as rattan, wild cardamom & medicinal plants such as “weni wel” are of commercial importance but are collected solrly from the wild & therefore have great potential for domestication & genetic improvement. The fact that the Sri Lanka rain forests contain a high proportion of endemics makes them all the more valuable.
The rich complexity of undisturbed rain forests also serves to illustrate thew full potential of the land. The rain forest in an undisturbed state is a highly efficient biological system in which individual components are structurlly & functionally arranged to maximise the use of the land. If fully understood therefore, these forests can serve as a yardstick for measuring the efficiency of man-made systems such as plantations, agro-forestry systems & agricultural farms. Although they have been unquestionably recognised as the most complex of all ecosystem, the interactions between their physical & biological components are little understood. Thus there is enormous potential for research & education on the rain forest. Much remains to be discovered of the origin, evolution & functioning of of these forests. Fortunately, today the rain forest has become the focus of increased scientific speculation, & therefore there is hope that it will be preserved for future generations.
LEGEND & FACT – THE HISTORY OF SINHARAJA
Records in History
Proper documentation of the aera beings with the Portuguese, the first Europen power to seize control of the Sri Lanka. Durings their administration from 1505 to 1656, the Portuguese carefull compiled list of villages so that the task of collecting taxes would be made easier. These lists contained not merely names but details description of the location and extent of each village as well as of the agricultural produce, including timber & fruit trees, found there. The antiquity of certain villages is made manifest in these Portuguese records for modern towns and villages in the Sinharaja region such as Kalawana & Pothupitiya still bear the same name they had whan the Portuguese wrote about them four centuries ago.
The next European power, the Dutch, (1656-1796) not only took over & maintained these records butalso made a more important contribution of charting the area on maps. By 1789, the Sinharaja region had been demarcated on a map that also traced the course of the two large rivers, the Gin Ganga & the Kalu Gangawhich ad their headwaters in the Sinharaja. The Duch maps made systematic exploration easier during the British colonial period (1796-1948) that folowed. Under british rule, a number of expendition were mounted for a variety of purposes. Some, specially the official surveys, were purely commercial in nature. The 1873 exploration by James Gunn, for example was meant toascertain the suitability of the region for raising coffee plantation & for the possible exploitation of its timber resoureces. On the other hand, George Henry Thwites in the 1850’s was responsible for the first comprehensive documentation of the island’s flora in ‘Enumeratio Plantarum Zelaniae’(1858-1864) which made numerous references to plants found in Sinharaja. The most notable of early British exploration of the Sinharaja was that of the soldier-ornithologist, captain Vincent Legge who incorporated the results of his forays into his work,’The History of Birds of Ceylon’(1880). In the latter part of the nineteenth century,foresters,botanists & surveyors occasionally visited the forest,and descriptive accounts of the fiora began to appear in recognised journais. For instance, the account of an expedition through the forst by frederick lewis a forester, appeared in 1896 in ‘the ceylon forester’ further references to plant life in sinharaja appeared in henry trimen’s ‘The handbook to the flora of Ceylon (1893-1900).
As far back as 1840, the sinharaja become crown property under the wasteland ordinance, which declared all forest & unoccupied or uncultivated land in the country as crown land. In May 1875, under an amended ordinance aimed at regulating the felling & removal of timber from crown land an area of 6,000 acres was declared as the reserved forest land of ‘Sinharaja Mukalana’. (Ceylon Governmant Gazette No.4046 date 8th May,1875).
The Recent Past
For the next two decades, the Sinharaja was to lie largely ignored by scientists & the general public. However, by the late 1950’s its a timber resources had been exhaustively analysed. In th late 1960’s the country began to ture to the lowland rain forests to meet its growing demand for timber. A fresh survey was carried out to confirm the potential of these forest as a source of plywood. Having established this potential the plywood corporation ventured upon an over-ambitious programme to exploit the forest of the wet-zone. The plan included the establishment of a massive plywood sawmill & chipwood complex with a capacity of 4 million cubicfeet to be set up at Kosgama, 85 kiometres noth-west of Sinharaja & to be fed with timber from the hitherto untapped forest of Kanneliya, Nakiyadeniya, Morapitiya, Runakanda, Delgoda & Sinharaja. By 1970, mechanized loging had already commenced in the reserves of Morapitiya & Kannelya adjoining Sinharaja, & in 1971, amid much protest, logging was extended to the reserve itself. Within a short period of two years or so, logging trails & roads had been established within the reserve & the forest was un danger of being totally destroyed. Two areas were however demarcated as MAB reserves of which only one, in the eastern part of the forest, was of sizeable extent.
The imminent danger through destruction of a forest of historical significance raised an outcry & a sense of outrage unprecedented in the history of public concern for nature conservation in Sri Lanka. Spearheaded by the Wild-life & Nature Protection Society,& with support from the clergy, scienctists & the general public, the protest movement forced the authorities to reconsider the decision to exploit the Sinharaja & to restrict logging operations within the reserve to a 3000 acreplot. In 1972, to help support the campaign against logging,. Thilo Hoffmann, then president of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society, set off on a factfinding mission,the results of which were documented in ‘The Sinharaja Forest -1972, A Non technical account’,one of the few accessible general publications on the forest in recent times.
In 1977, a new govenment was elected, & one of its first acts was to falt all logging operations in Siharaja.the workshop for servicing logging equipent set up inside the forest was dismantled & all the machinery withdrawn. In april 1978,the status of the forest reserve was enhanced when it was made an International Man & Biosphere Reserve & thus become part of a World wild chain of such protected areas. These measures were further atrengthened in 1988 when the Sinharaja was made a National Wilderness Area & IN 1989 when it was included in UNESCO’s prestigious list of World Heritage cites.
With the cessation of logging activitirs, scientists once more gained access to the forest. In 1978, a pioneer research programme aws launched by savitre & nimal gunathilaka of the univercity of peradeniya. Since then,other Sri Lankan Univercities, states agecies & institutions & voluntary organizations have been involved in reseach activities in the forest. Educational progammers on the ecological & conservation value of the Sinharaja have also been conducted for school children, The villagers in the area & members of the public. The reserve has now become the focus of interest for local & froeign naturalists & wildlife enthusiasts. Thus there seems to be some measure of hope that this unique Sri Lankan forest once threatened with total destruction would be preserved for the future.
