President and Pavithra Wanniarachchi together with Taprobane Seafood Ltd. destroy the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve
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President and Pavithra Wanniarachchi together with Taprobane Seafood Ltd. destroy the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve
It is with the intervention of the President and Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, with the influence of Taprobane Seafood Ltd., that an extent of 418 acres of land has been excluded from the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve in the Mannar District. This will go down in history as the first time that land in a reserve area has been released to fulfill the need of a company. The present government has set many bad precedents for the society through this illegal act. This has resulted in a deterioration of the good attitudes people have had regarding declaration of conservation areas and the protection of conservation areas.
Especially, after the war in the North and East of the country had ended, there was no good attitude among the people living in those provinces regarding the declaration of reservation areas in the Northern and the Eastern provinces. They believe that commonly used lands are forcibly acquired and designated as reserves, and then they are declared as reservation areas with the intention of giving the land to companies or for other uses. Allocating lands from the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve with the intervention of the President and Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi to expand the prawn farm located in Nayathuveli area in Pallaimadu in Wedithalathivu belonging to Taprobane Seafood Ltd. in order to expand the aquaculture project confirms that there is truth in these wrong attitudes held by the people.
Basis for the declaration of Wedithalathivu as a reservation
After the war in the Northern and Eastern Provinces had ended, there arose the need for a plan for the management of natural resources, particularly in the Northern Province. The basis for this was the need to regulate the possible effects that could arise from the development projects to be implemented in the Northern Province including the National Physical Plan and from the resettlement of the people after the end of the war. Accordingly, studies were carried out with the assistance from the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme with the participation of government institutions and a team of experts. The report that was prepared in 2011 based on the findings of those studies was published in November 2014 by the Central Environmental Authority and the Disaster Management Center under the title "Integrated Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka". In this report, the manner in which the natural ecosystem complex located in Wedithalathivu area, which is spread in the Mannar District, should be declared as a conservation area and the importance of such declaration have been explained in detail using maps.
President and Pavithra Wanniarachchi together with Taprobane Seafood Ltd. destroy the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve | PARL | PARL
Apart from that, Wedithalathivu wetland system received special attention during the census of aquatic birds in Sri Lanka carried out by the Ceylon Bird Club during the annual bird migration season during the period of the war and thereafter. Wedithalathivu area has been identified as one of the leading areas with the highest wetland bird population density particularly in the Northern Province. After the reports of this census had been published, this area received special attention of the Department of Wildlife Conservation.
In addition to this, this area has received greater attention of birdwatcher groups and environmental organizations as well as of researchers, and a number of studies have been carried out especially on the marine environment of the Wedithalathivu area as well. As a result of all these studies, plans were made with the intervention of the Department of Wildlife Conservation to declare as a conservation area the entire area including the mixed dry evergreen forests and grasslands in the Wedithalathivu land area, the salt marshes and mangrove forests along the lagoons, as well as the seagrass beds, coral reefs and mudflats located along the shallow coast, which are spread in 25 Grama Niladhari Divisions belonging to the two Divisional Secretary's Divisions namely the Mannar and the Manthai West divisions.
Accordingly, by virtue of the powers vested in the subject Minister in terms of Sub-section 2(1) of the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve, which is in extent of 29,180 hectares, has been declared by the Gazette Extraordinary No. 1956/13 dated 01 March 2016. While the current President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickramasinghe, was the Prime Minister at that time, Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, the then Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife declared this area as a nature reserve. However, the sad situation is that, Ranil Wickramasinghe, after assuming office as the current President, has decided to remove 418 acres from the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve in order to fulfill the need of Taprobane Seafood Ltd. Several high ranking officials and a key consultant of that Company have confirmed that Pavithra Wanniarachchi, the Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, has implemented that decision because she has accepted a large bribe from that Company. As they say, if it had not happened like that, the Minister wouldn't have made that decision, and it is unbelievable that she has decided to dispose of reserved land illegally in this manner assuming all associated risks.
Illegal exclusion of lands from conservation areas
By virtue of the powers vested in the subject minister in terms of Sub-sections 1 and 4 of Section 2 of the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi has excluded a part of the land of the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve form that reserve by Gazette Extraordinary No. 2383/05 of 06 May 2024. However, this gazette notification has been published as an incomplete notice because the exact boundaries of the area to be excluded have not been specified in the gazette notification. When enquired further about this, the officials of the Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation revealed that the land belonging to the nature reserve was released on the orders of the President and the Minister in order to give 418 acres of land to Taprobane Seafood Ltd. for an aquaculture project.
It is not possible to legally release lands in this manner. The preliminary interpretation of the Act, as amended by the last amendment to the Act, namely Fauna and Flora Protection (Amendment) Act No. 07 of 2022, provides that this Act is amended for the prevention of commercial and other misuse of fauna and flora and their habitats. All the sections of this Act should be interpreted in light of this preliminary interpretation.
Accordingly, in terms of Sub-section 2(4)(a) of this Act, power has been vested in the subject minister to amend the boundaries of a conservation area, but it should be done in accordance with the said preliminary interpretation of the Act and in accordance with Sub-section 2(5) of the Act. In terms of Sub-section 2(5), a study should be carried out before amending the boundaries of a reserve, and that study should include an investigation of the environmental impact that could be caused by the amendment of the boundaries, but as Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi has excluded land from Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve without obtaining a report of such study, this exclusion of land is completely illegal.
In terms of Sub-section 2(a) of the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, all activities in a nature reserve should be carried out in accordance with an approved management plan. Accordingly, the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve Management Plan 2024 - 2028, which was prepared by a Management Plan Committee appointed by the Director General of Wildlife Conservation, has been approved and signed in terms of Sub-section 2(a)(3) of the Act by R. M. C. M. Herath, Secretary to the Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, on 27th December 2023. This approved plan is valid for a period of 5 years, and no development activity can be carried out in this Nature Reserve outside this plan. In this management plan, there is no mention of a land release for an aquaculture project. Therefore, Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi has illegally released the lands of this Nature Reserve acting in violation of the approved management plan.
Illegal transfer of lands of the Nature Reserve to a harmful company
This illegal allotment and transfer of land from the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve is done to expand the Wedithalathivu prawn farm owned by Taprobane Seafood Ltd., which is operating causing damage to the environment and suffering to the public. Taprobane Seafood Private Ltd., which was founded in 2011 jointly by the two businessmen Timothy O'Reilly and Dylan Fernando, entered into a strategic partnership agreement last year with Direct Source Seafood company of the United States of America, founded in 2010, for the sustainable production and sale of seafood in order to expand the export process. On the basis of export expansion, the Company has entered into an agreement with the Direct Source Seafood company, which is the largest company in the United States engaged in import of crabs and prawns. Thus, it is ironical that the lands of the nature reserve, which has been declared a reserve in order to ensure the protection of the present and future generations, are excluded illegally from the reserve and used for sustainable seafood production.
Taprobane Seafood Company has exported products exceeding US$ 20 million in 2023, and has planned to expand its exports exceeding US$ 40 million annually from 2024 onwards. All these plans have been made on the basis of acquiring the lands belonging to Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve to the Company. The company, which is saying that it will earn foreign exchange to Sri Lanka through these measures, is depriving the fisher community of Wedithalathivu area, who had been caught up in the armed conflict in the Northern and Eastern provinces from 1983 to 2010, of their labour, right to live and existence of natural resources as well as their independent living. The Company has made these fishermen their debtors and, on that basis, the Company is buying their fish harvest at a very low price. Apart from that, the residents of this area are not given any employment in this company. The main reason for this is that the Company wants to prevent the people of this area from getting to know what kind of chemicals are used in these prawn farms.
All the aqueous liquid waste from this farm is directly released to the Nayaru canal that flows close by. This liquid waste then flows through this canal to the lagoons, mangroves and seagrass beds located in the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve. In the recent years, hundreds of thousands of fish died at once as the waste water removed after cleaning the prawn tanks of the farm had been released into this canal. As the canals and the nearby mangrove systems have been polluted with this waste water, moving of fishes, prawns and crabs living in the lagoon and shallow seas to these canals and mangrove systems for breeding has greatly decreased. Because of this, the small-scale fishing industry around the lagoons is collapsing. What happens by giving more lands to expand the prawn farms of a company that is already operating in such harmful manner is that the entire Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve will face a massive destruction along with the livelihoods of the fishermen.
It is illegal to discharge wastewater from a prawn farm into a common water source without subjecting it to treatment. Waste water can be discharged in that manner only subject to the tolerance limits for the discharge of aqueous waste that has been specified in Gazettes Extraordinary No. 1534/18 of 10 February 2008 and No. 2264/17 of 27 January 2022 published in terms of Sub-sections 23A and 23B of the National Environmental Act No. 47 of 1980 as amended. Accordingly, tolerance limits have been specified for the discharge of wastewater into the ocean and into the near-shore water, but the wastewater from this prawn farm, which exceeds the specified tolerance limits, is directly discharged into the Nayaru canal without treatment, which is a violation of the National Environmental Act.
In addition to these, in terms of Section 23A of the National Environmental Act, an environmental protection licencee should be obtained as provided in Gazette Extraordinary No. 2264/18 of 27 January 2022 for any industry that discharges waste into the environment. Accordingly, an environmental protection licencee should be obtained to run this prawn farm, too, but this prawn farm is run in violation of the conditions set out in the environmental protection license that has been obtained for that purpose directly discharging the wastewater into the canals in violation of the National Environmental Act. Not only that, when obtaining this license, the Company has covered up the correct information about the chemicals used in the prawn farm and about the waste disposal and treatment system of the farm.
Due to this situation, the people living around this prawn farm have to suffer difficulties. In terms of Section 261 of the Penal Code No. 02 of 1883, endangering or obstructing the sources which people have the right to enjoy in general is a public nuisance. Accordingly, this shrimp farm is run in a manner that causes public nuisance, too.
It will not take long for this Company, which has been operating throughout the recent past damaging the environment and causing public nuisance, to destroy the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve and to reach the company's target of earning US$ 40 million of foreign exchange by way of further expanding this prawn farm, which is run in a way that damages the environment and causes public nuisance. It is a pity that Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi does not understand this because of the greed for money.
The government illegally gives the common rights of the people to companies
The fishing industry in the Mannar District and the related livelihoods of the people are mainly dependent on the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve. The fish, prawns and crabs that live in the shallow seas and lagoons of this area breed mainly in the mudflats, sea grasses, mangroves and salt marshes belonging to this Nature Reserve. It is on this fish resource that the economy and social life of the fisher community in Mannar depend. It is the people living in these areas who protected all these natural ecosystems, which are linked to their life and economy as well as to the food sovereignty of the country, until these ecosystems were given legal protection in 2016 by declaring them a nature reserve. Therefore, what happens by transferring these lands, which are linked to those common-use resources, to companies or to a company that operates in a harmful manner to expand its prawn farm, is that the entire nature reserve gets affected by it. Consequently, the population of marine and lagoon beings gets destroyed, and the related livelihoods, economy, food production process as well as the nutrition of the people collapse along with this common natural resource. In terms of the provisions of the Constitution, neither the President nor a Minister has the power to make decisions creating such a situation.
Article 27(14) in Chapter VI of the Constitution of the the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, "Directive Principle of State Policy and Fundamental Duties", which states that "The State shall protect, preserve and improve the environment for the benefit of the community" has been completely violated. In 2000, A.R.B. Amarasinghe, Judge of the Supreme Court, interpreting Article 27(14) of the Constitution in issuing the determination of the case that had been filed against leasing out of the Eppawala phosphate deposit to the US-based Freeport McMoran Company, pointed out that, in terms of the provisions of the constitution, the government does not have the power to make decisions that could lead to destruction of the environment. According to this interpretation, Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi has violated the Constitution by excluding land from a nature reserve to fulfil the need of a company.
In addition to this, it has been confirmed by a number of court determinations that public lands are owned by the people. In 1892, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, issuing its determination in the case filed in 1883 against the construction of a railway line across a part of Lake Michigan in America by filling that part of the Lake, has pointed out that the government should not give common property such as soil and water to any individual for private use and control in the interest of the public, and that the government should maintain the natural resources of the country in the interest of the public.
Moreover, in 1997, Judge C.G. Weeramanthri, issuing the determination of the case that was heard before the International Court of Justice related to the issue that arose in 1977 regarding the construction of dams and obtaining water of the River Danube, which flows between Slovakia and Hungary, cited the contents of the conversation that took place between Arahat Mihinda and King Devanampiyatissa, and gave the determination based on the concept of public trust or public trust doctrine that "the government is only the custodian and not the owner of the country's natural resources". Even in the determination of the case relating to the Eppawala Phosphate deposit, Judge A.R.B. Amarasinghe cited the determination of the case of the Danube River referring to the public trust doctrine, and stated that people own the natural resources of the country, and the responsibility of the government is only to hold the custody of those resources and to protect those resources for the people. It has been further stated in the judgment that the king is not the owner, but the custodian of the country's resources, and that the custodian has no power to destroy or alienate those resources and is bound by the responsibility to protect the resources. Accordingly, it is confirmed that neither the President nor the Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation has any authority to exclude from the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve the lands belonging to the Reserve in order to give those lands for the expansion of the prawn farming project of the Taprobane Seafood Company.
Moreover, the manner in which the government should exercise its powers has been stated in the judgement of the case related to the writ application that was filed in the Court of Appeal in 2015 against the release of lands belonging to the forest reserves under the control of the Department of Forest Conservation located north of the Wilpattu National Park for resettlement by the department of Forest Conservation at the request of the Minister of Resettlement. It has been stated in the judgment given in year 2020 by Bandula Karunaratne, judge of the Court of Appeal, that the powers vested in public authorities are not absolute or unlimited, and that those powers should be exercised in the interest of the public. Accordingly, it is further confirmed that the Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation does not have any power to exclude the lands belonging to the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve from that reserve in order to give those lands for the expansion of the prawn farming project of the Taprobane Seafood Company.
Destruction of the environmental values of the nature reserve
This is the only conservation area in the country that covers a large number of ecosystems on land and in the shallow sea in 14 Grama Niladhari Divisions belonging to Manthai West Divisional Secretary's Division and 11 Grama Niladhari Divisions belonging to Mannar Divisional Secretary's Division in the Mannar District. Many ecosystems including seagrass beds in the shallow sea, mudflats, coral reefs and rocky reef ecosystems, coastal ecosystems including brackish lagoons, mangroves, salt marshes and coastal vegetation, ecosystems on the land including dry grasslands, thorn scrub forests, mixed dry evergreen forests and many ecosystems including freshwater streams such as Nayaru, Parangi Aru, Vappai Aru and Pali Aru belong to this nature reserve. Therefore, this can be called a unique conservation area in Sri Lanka.
Many plant species of different ecosystems are found in this nature reserve. Out of them, 11 of the 22 true mangrove species that are recorded only in mangrove environments in Sri Lanka are found in this nature reserve. Out of them, the two plant species Manda (Avicennia marina) and Ela Kadol (Rhizophora mucronata) can be seen prominently, and in addition there are mangrove species such as Punkanda (Ceriops tagal), Mal Kadol (Bruguiera cylindrical), Beriya(Lumnitzera racemose), Kirala (Pemphis acidula), Thel Keeriya (Excoecaria agallocha), Heen Kadol (Aegiceras corniculatum), and Kadol (Bruguiera gymnorhiza) in this nature reserve.
Further, there are many species of seagrass such as Thalassia hempritchii, Enhalus acoroides, Cymodocea rotundata, Cymodocea serrulate, Syringodium isoetifolium, Holodule pinifolia in the shallow seagrass beds in this area. There also are small plant species such as Maha Sarana (Sesuvium portulacastrum), Lunu Gas (Halosarcia indica) and umari(Suaeda maritima) in the salt marshes of this nature reserve, which are seen only in saline environments.
Studies have revealed that about 52 species of flowering plants are found in the grasslands, thorn scrub forests and dry mixed evergreen forests in the land environment of this nature reserve. Flowering plants such as Heen Karamba(Carissa spinarum), Palu (Manilkara hexandra), Ranavara (Senna auriculata), Maa Dan (Syzygium cumini), Weera(Drypetes sepiaria), Kukuruman (Catunaregam Spinose) and Kambaressa (Smilax perfolata) etc. can be seen in this nature reserve.
Apart from the diversity of plants in this nature reserve, there is also a great diversity of animals that are unique to different ecosystems. The very rare and critically endangered marine mammal called dugong (Dugong dugon) is rarely seen in the seagrass beds of this area, and dolphin species such as the kabara mullah (Sousa plumbea), too, are found here. Four out of the five species of turtles reported to be found in this country come to lay their eggs on the coast of this reserve. These four species are the olive ridely turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), the leatherback turtle (Eretmochelys imbricate), the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta).
The greatest diversity of species in Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve is the diversity of birds. According to the reports of the Ceylon Bird Club, it has been found that more than one million migratory and water birds are reported from this reserve. It is a unique feature that 210 of the 512 species of birds that have so far been reported in Sri Lanka are found in this nature reserve. A number of species of migratory and resident birds that inhabit wetland environments, namely Northern Shoveler, Indian Spot billed Duck, Garganey, Ruddy Shelduck, Sooty Tern, Bridled Tern, Roseate Tern, Caspian Tern, Great Crested Tern, Gray Francolin, Greater Painted Snipe , Pied Avocet, Sanderling, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Bar tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Ruff, Besra, Eurasian Marsh Harrier and Pied Harrier are found in this nature reserve.
It is in order to ensure the protection of this entire bio-community that Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve has been declared. Apart from that, according to the Bonn Convention, Sri Lanka is bound to protect the coastal areas where the turtles that migrate to Sri Lanka to lay their eggs breed and to protect the feeding grounds of the birds that migrate to Sri Lanka during winter and summer and to ensure the protection of those birds. Sri Lanka, which has signed and agreed on 6 June 1990 to the Bonn Convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals (Bonn Convention), which was adopted on 23 June 1979 is internationally bound to ensure the protection of the turtles and the birds that migrate to Sri Lanka. The Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, which is bound to implement this convention, has no right to make decisions that lead to the destruction of the habitats of those animals.
What is clear from the fact that plans have been made to destroy the Wedithalathivu Nature Reserve, which consists of a unique ecosystem complex, instead of making plans to protect this Nature Reserve taking all these factors into consideration, is that the President and the entire Cabinet of Ministers have no idea about the present and future existence of the country's natural resources or about the system of environmental laws of this country or of international conventions. Therefore, the wise people should get together and should take the lead in protecting these resources. Otherwise, complete destruction of these natural resources and the livelihoods, the economy and the food sovereignty of the people of this country in a very short period of time at the will of private companies and politicians will not be able to be prevented.
