Mohammad Thoufeek of Marichchukaddy in the most Southern village of Musali, was 29-years-old when he entered the Wilpattu forest on October 28, 1990 accompanied by his family and other villagers, following the LTTE order to evict their village in 24 hours as it suspected that Muslims provided secret information on them to the government forces.
Musali in the Mannar District was the only divisional secretariat with a Muslim majority. It was a difficult journey through the thick forest to Puttlam where they set up a temporary shelter. Thoufeek and the other 70,000 odd Muslims in the Northern District started a life full of many hardships becoming internally displaced unfortunates.
By the time they returned, Wilpattu forest had snuffed the entire village that they couldn’t even see landmarks of the earlier civilisation. However, Musali Divisional Secretariat (DS) under the guidance of Minister Rishad Bathiudeen and former Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, cleared the area and began the resettlement process.
When we met Thoufeek last week, he was in a small shed in front of his house with his wife, perhaps to escape the hot air inside the house. It was a burning, hot sunny day and to live in the area was nothing short of unfortunate, one could say.
“Assalamualaikum! (Peace be with you),” he extended us a warm welcome.
“These are hundreds of years old traditional lands. All of us have deeds and other legal documents. There is a 100-year-old Masjid too in our village,” he said.
Soon after the war, resettlement in three villages in Musali Divisional Secretariat - Palaikuli (100 acres), Marichchukaddy (100 acres) and Karadykkuli (80 acres) began under the supervision of Minister Bathiudeen.
That was almost two years before the Department of Forest Conservation (DFC) began its duties in the Northern Province in August 2011. A letter sent by DFC to the Attorney General’s Department in 2015 stated that these traditional Muslim villages were taken over by the DFC.
The letter also states that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) for Resettlement, Development and Defence under the chairmanship of former minister Basil Rajapaksa, on November 22, 2012 had recommended that the DFC releases lands for resettlement.
Following the recommendation, on January 2, 2013, DFC ordered its officer in Mannar to release the land. The PTF had then requested the DFC to release 2007 acres more for resettlement purposes. However, DFC had approved the release of only 1635 acres of land which was damaged and could not be reclaimed as forest area.
According to another letter sent by PTF to the Secretary of the Ministry of Environment on November 23, 2012, the officially cleared land area was 1,735 acres within the Musali DS which includes half an acre of land for the house and another acre for cultivation for each family.
Racism, the underlying cause?
The request made by PTF to release more land for resettlement, was due to the increase in population in the village. A member of the Musali Pradeshiya Sabha and a resident of Marichchukaddy, K.M. Iqbal told the Sunday Observer that there were around 120 families in the village when they fled the area in 1990. On their return the number of families had increased to 622 due to the marriages of their children.
“We don’t need forest lands. We only need our traditional lands. We have been waiting to meet the President for a long time. We informed MP Cader Masthan of our need. But there has been no response from the President’s office,” said Thoufeek.
There were two or three houses beyond Thoufeek’s house, around another three kilo metres to the Wilpattu border, a clear sign that Wilpattu had not been deforested by resettlement.
Another significant fact is that no land in Wilpattu is in Mannar District. Wilpattu had spread to Anuradhapura and Puttalam Districts, as Modaragam Aru the northern border of Wiplattu is also the provincial border between the North Western and Northern Provinces.
The chief bhikkhu of the Northern and Eastern Provinces, Ven. Siyambalagaswewa Wimalasara Thera told the Sunday Observer that there could be wicked efforts to spread racism by discussing the deforestation of Wilpattu.
“We have been talking about unity through the years. It was the Buddha who taught us that there must be unity among the communities. Buddhism doesn’t divide people. We lived here during the LTTE era with the same principle.
“Someone had posted on Facebook that we cry for Bathiudeen’s money. There is no such thing. I don’t care what other people think of me. I stand for what I believe. Minister Bathiudeen is not racist. He is the only politician who supports the 14 active Buddhist temples in Vavuniya. Those who have labelled themselves as Sinhala Buddhists have not done anything for these temples”.
A top official in public administration of the area, who spoke to the Sunday Observer on the basis of anonymity said,
“The authorities in Colombo had no discussion with us, especially on remarking the forest. They should have first requested the Musali DS to provide information pertaining to land in the area. They remarked the forest area without consulting the DS. That is the origin of this issue,” he said.
In fact it was President Maithripala Sirisena who under Clause 3A of the Forest Conservation Act had signed a Gazette notification on March 24, 2017, declaring the Mavillu Forest Reserve including a few resettled areas - Mavillu, Veppal, Karadikkuli, Maritchukkaddy, Wilanthikkulam and Periyamarippu after several years passed by the beginning of resett;ement process.
“These lands in Marichukaddy were given to Muslim families that were displaced during the war, in the early 90’s. We personally checked if Rishard Bathiudeen had seized any land in the area, but we found none. As I see it, he, being a Muslim Politician, has served his people. We don’t see any wrong in that,” said Wimalasara Thera.
Bulldozers
“Even Sinhala colonies such as Marichchukaddy after the war were reestablished by clearing the forest area. When we resettled the Sinhalese people of Vavuniya District in their villages, we had to go there with bulldozers.
We had to clear the jungle to resettle people in their rightful land. Rankethgama in Vavuniya is one such example. I spoke to former District Secretary Mannar Deshapriya about the issue. He assured me that Marichchukaddy resettlement is legal”.
Wimalasara Thera also spoke about the probable political opportunism that could be behind all these activities. “Rishard Bathiudeen started resettlement under the Mahinda Rajapaka administration. When he crossed over and joined the UNP his former allies started bashing him.
If he someday joins his former camp, people in this camp would start accusing him,” the thera said.
“Ananda Sagara Thera is claimed to be a Presidential Advisor. My question is, if the President himself says that no forest had been cleared after 2015, how can Ananda Sagara Thera go against that opinion? The President should re-think about such advisors,” the thera said.
The Ministry of Defence website announced on March 23, 2019 that no forest cover was cleared after 2015, except the legally provided land to the people of Maritchkaddy, Kallaru and Mullikulam in the Musali Pradeshiya Sabha region north of the Wilpattu Park.
The announcement was based on 178 surveillance operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Air Force from December 22, 2015. The last air surveillance operation was carried out on March 22, 2019.
Villagers in Marichchukaddy said if the President’s report on Wiplattu is published, the issue can be sorted immediately.
“The President’s report is not out yet. We request the President to publicise the Committee report on Wiplattu. If it is out, there will be no issues. Everyone is invited to visit Marichchukaddy to witness what is happening there,” Thoufeek said.
Deforesting continues Protect Sri Lanka
We have been raising the issue of deforestation in Mannar for a number of years. As a result the President declared 100,000 acres in the Mavillu, Kallaru reserve areas and others in the vicinity through a Gazette as a reserved forest. That was other than the areas already cleared for resettlement - Marichchukaddy, Mavillu, Periyamarichchi reserves and two others. There was strong opposition to this but this was a win for us environmentalists. However, some entered the area as shown in the audit report and started clearing, claiming they were given the land for resettlement. The audit report shows those who have been resettled in these forest areas are the new generations of the original inhabitants. The forest has been cleared and those who have been resettled are not people who were displaced during the war. It is clear the forest is being continuously damaged. Though some say we have brought this up suddenly there is no truth to it. We have been concerned and raising our voice against it for a long time.
The Cabinet paper was presented to create the industrial zones Welioya and Musali in 2014. This had been presented to the Committee for Resettlement in 2016. On May 26, 2016 as first stage, 25 acres was approved to be released from a total of 75 acres.
We are against this. If they give approval to clear 75 acres we suspect even more forest land than has been approved will be cleared. Why would anyone want to create an industrial zone in a bio diverse area? There are many government owned urban lands in Mannar that can be utilised for the purpose. So why establish it in a forest area?
Deforestation on a small scale is happening and on the other hand proposals are being brought in to create industrial zones and relevant steps such as EIAs and surveys of land are being carried out.
Not only Wilpattu, other forests such as Kanneliya are facing threats due to the neo-liberal new development model being carried out by the Government.
We are doing this out of love for our country and its environment despite people alleging that we are racists. We have never resorted to racism. We have voiced our dissent on the clearance of forests when Ministers Sarath Fonseka and Palitha Thewarapperuma took decisions detrimental to environment and wildlife. We were the first to talk about Aruwakkalu and its negative effects. We will not stop our efforts even if they try to label us racists.
If they claim no other land has been cleared since 2015, I request them to meet me. I can show them the areas that were cleared in 2016 such as Vilayattikulam. Not even the Forest Department was aware. We alerted them to the destruction. This was in the areas gazetted by the President as reserve forests.
The situation in Maritchkaddy is unfortunate. Trees and shrubbery have regrown as the Kallaru River overflows several times a year. As a result many people have left the area. Our request is that the village be moved towards Silavathura.
We are not objecting to the existence or creation of a Muslim village.
Our issue is its location. People are trying to label our efforts as racist to put a clamp on us, the media and officials as it then becomes a sensitive topic. We will continue our fight, hold protests continuously and make sure our voices are heard at the next election to secure a national policy for the protection of evnironment and widlife.
‘We have not released any land after 2013’
Conservator of Forests (Environment Management), Department of Forest Conservation, Mahinda Seneviratne said:
Wilpattu is not a new issue. The topic has resurfaced in recent times through the media. As being alleged, no clearing of forests in the areas have taken place recently. Wilpattu became a topic of discussion right after the end of war in 2009. The aim was to resettle people of all races who were displaced due to war back in their own lands or on other suitable lands. Since it was just after the war, there was no civil administration in the North then. Releasing land according to procedures was difficult and land kachcheries did not take place. As a solution, the Government created a special Presidential Task Force to coordinate land distribution and conduct it legally.
The Task Force included Former Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa as President and former Civil Administrator S.B Divaratne as Secretary. Other members were Secretaries of 10 ministries, Commanders of the triforces and the Inspector General of Police, relevant Divisional Secretaries and District Secretaries. All settlements were made with the knowledge and approval of the Task Force. At that time the Forest Department was not yet functioning in the North. The Task Force chose the needed lands and it was cleared for resettlement initially by the armed forces. The land kachcheries were then held with the assistance of the divisional secretaries and distributed to the selected IDPs.
Once the Forest Department began functioning in the North, it has been vigilant about the clearing of forest areas. In July 2012 we were called for a meeting with the Task Force. It was only then the Department officially got involved in the process. We were asked to give our support for resettlement land under the purview of the Department.
Ten sites in Musali, Mannar were inspected by a committee. Its decision was that land amounting to 1080 acres from five sites would be suitable for release. The report was handed over to the task force on November 15, 2012. Instructions were then given to release the land for resettlement. The Committee also noted that the lands were not sufficient for the displaced and more requests for land was made to the Forest Department. These lands requested were thick forests. We responded that clearing these lands was not favourable. They asked for 2007 acres more. We held many discussions and agreed to the release of 770 acres and 650 acres from two sites. This was the maximum we could release and some of these lands were partially cleared and others were adjacent to the road.
In Musali DS which is to the North of Wilpattu, we have released a total of 1700 acres on two different occasions. 1080 acres were released on January 2, 2013. The rest was released on May 8, 2013. Since then we have not released any land in the North for human habitats.
In 2015 there was a media uproar against Wilpattu clearing. The President halted the release of land in the North. On Decmber 8,2015 a circular was issued to stop the release of forest land for any purpose. From 2013 no land was released.
There is no deforestation at the moment as claimed. The President has issued orders that strict action be taken if anyone is found to be violating the law. We are doing our utmost to protect forest land in the North. There has been no handing over of land since 2013 nor any clearance of land since 2015.