Today 5th June 2021, the World celebrates World Environment day. I note it but, do not celebrate as in my mind, there is nothing to celebrate.
More than half-century ago Sri Lanka boasted considerable forest cover with plentiful wildlife, an almost pristine ocean replete with marine life including, my speciality, sharks. On clear nights the unpolluted atmosphere enabled one to see with the naked eye an array of stars, planets, the milky way and the occasional comet. Even under these idyllic conditions renowned environmentalists like Lyn De Alwis, Thilo Hoffmann, Sarath Kotagama and many others warned that, given the large number of environmental threats, conditions could soon take a turn for the worse. Although I was an experienced jungle man and diver since my school days, I really got involved in the environmental conservation movement when I joined the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society in 1970. While I was aware of the threats I assumed that, if uncontrolled, the problems would manifest themselves long after I had entered “That unknown country from whose bourne no traveller returns”. How wrong I was! The decline set in much faster than my colleagues or I ever expected.
Today, Sri Lanka is smitten with threats which no one could foresee a half-century ago. Our forests have been devastated, our wildlife endangered and iconic species, including our leopards and elephants, threatened with extinction within the next decade or so unless some miracle occurs. Our seas have been polluted, overfished and some species are on the verge of extinction. A new generation of Sri Lankan divers has, for example, never seen a Giant Grouper or Grey reef shark underwater. Today one must get away from the cities to a dark site to see the Milky Way, Omega Centauri or Andromeda Galaxy with the unaided eye.
What has happened? There are many reasons which have been dealt with by more competent people than I but, in my mind, the most important is the continuously expanding human population with its ever increasing demands on limited resources. As Bittu Sahagal, a great Indian environmentalist once said to me many years ago “We must understand that population and consumption are the same thing”.
Next to the matter of an exploding population is, to me at least, human greed which will lay waste to thousands of hectares of natural habitat to fill the coffers of a few privilaged individuals. This brings to mind a saying attributed to an old Native American chief who once said "Only when the last tree has been felled will we realise that we cannot eat money".
So what is the solution? Regrettably I have no answer to offer. The fact is, I am a part of the problem, I am not a part of the solution.
A glimmer of hope exists in that there is great environmental consciousness in the population today, especially among the younger generation who are performing yeoman service in making their peers, elders and others aware of the problems Sri Lanka faces. Education and information are important but is this enough? Only time will tell and unfortunately there may not be much time left before we have to face Armageddon.
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