Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Victory for Environmentalists!

Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Victory for Environmentalists!

Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Victory for Environmentalists! Wilpattu (meaning: land of lakes) is one of the biggest and oldest national parks in Sri Lanka. It is world renown for its leopards.

Illegal clearing and resettlement within the adjacent Reserve Forest has been ongoing for the past several years. Approximately 3,000 hectares in the forest complex adjoining Wilpattu National Park has been cleared for unauthorised resettlements by a corrupt politician and his lackeys.

As a result of findings of the Appeals Court of Sri Lanka, Ex-Minister Rishad Bathiudeen must now use his personal funds to reforest the area illegally cleared for resettlements. At the time of this article, he was in jail on unrelated charges (now out on bail).

The Wilpattu National Park, is inhabited by a significant portion of Sri Lanka’s leopard population. The civil war closed the park between 1988 to 2003, and again from 2007 to 2010. I (Philip) entered the Park with the infamous Dr. Nananda Atapattu and our film crew in 1999 to determine the fate of wildlife. We found literally no animal tracks, but did find an active trap gun set to go off on any passing animal. We determined that most wildlife in the Park was decimated -- being poached to feed the rebels in the area.

Poaching continues to be a major problem, as the land area is large and insufficiently monitored or protected. While poachers are not necessarily hunting leopards, they are mostly targeting deer, and leopards are inadvertently harmed. Demand for wildgame/bushmeat is a driver of this activity.

All nature-loving persons should forego consuming this wild caught meat, and convince friends and family to do the same!

It has been a long path to restore Wilpattu to its former glory as a safe sanctuary for threatened wildlife. Political officials like Rishad Bathiudeen are karmically injured when they behave with short term interests. Such short sightedness will doom future generations, who will survive only when we understand the 'chain of life.' We are but a link within the chain - such arrogance or ignorance to think otherwise!

This case is likely to be appealed now to the Supreme Court. We will be watching!