The word
Kalavedda suddenly came to scenario at several occasions during and also after the presidential election 2010 in Sri Lanka. One of the prominent ministers of the Government, releasing a media statement recently on TV, cited that Kalavedda is an animal that lives hiding on ceilings of houses at night and disappears during the day time. Although the poor knowledge of lawyer minister misleads himself in this regard, even little kids know these animals are clever hunters of night-time which rest mostly on ceilings or on other higher elevations during the day. As a fact the minister stated that he came to know about this animal for the first time when the defeated presidential candidate Gen (Rtd) Sarath Fonseka quoted this animal pointing out people with lack of gratitude right after losing the election.
Kalavedda (Polecat) is an animal of the size of a little bigger than a house cat with a long and hairy tail. It can easily climb up buildings and trees just like it's close relative species named
Uguduwa-Palm Civet (paradoxurus hermaphroditus). Their only ground habitat relatives are
Hothambuwa (Golden Civet),
Mugatiya (Mongoose) and
Dettha (Meerkats) among which the
Mugatis maintain their extraordinary talent of fighting against Cobra. Undoubtedly Kalavedda is created by God with solely combination of skillful thief and ruthless killer. Once, years ago, they had attacked and consumed a couple of my pet rabbits leaving only two clues of their presence at night; a very small piece of bone under the cage and a perfectly rounded up six inch diameter hole made with their teeth on the iron wire-mesh.
Kalavedda symbolizes skillful hunting talents. That could be the main or perhaps only reason why it is named "
Vedda" meaning "the hunter". In addition to that, this could be considered as the only occasion where an animal is called as same as a human race (Veddas-Forest Dwellers). Sri Lanka's indigenous inhabitants, the Veddas, preserve a direct line of descent from the island's original Neolithic community dating from at least 14,000 BC and probably far earlier according to current scientific opinion. Although, in Sri Lanka, the animals are normally not named after people except the case mentioned above, it is a traditional and distinguished way of
identifying family-line in vedda community by the names of animals. For instance, the present vedda chief's family is named after "Pig" calling their family-line "
Uruwarige".
Veddas social structure is a matrilineal exogamous clan organization based on female line of descent. In simple terms, the Veddas are a forest people who trace their ancestry through their mother's line back to their mother-ancestor, the
yakka-princess
Kuveni. As chronicles say, the legendary love affair of
Vijaya-Kuveni ended up chasing princes Kuveni along with her two children to the jungle by the invaders of India as well as her own people forming
Sinhala nation as the main stream of society. Early Sinhala immigrants from North India did not support at all the old style, obsolete women-dominant social structure. The people of the main
social stream, at the early stages, were of the opinion that the forest-dwelling aboriginal were not human beings but wild jungle spirits (yakkas) who were human in outward guise only. Such negative, stereotyped attitudes toward the island's indigenous people persists up to the present day even in educated circles and has been considered as a major stumbling block to the recognition of Veddas self-respect, dignity, human rights, and cultural uniqueness. Hence, the Veddas are widely assumed to be a backward, gullible people whose point of view may be conveniently ignored. However as a fact, on the other hand, the shy, retiring nature of the Veddas has served to insulate them from the contaminating effects of contact with mainstream society. According to the point of view of some outsiders, whenever a conflict of interests has arisen between the nomadic hunter-gatherer Vedda community and the far larger dominant community of settled agriculturists and traders, the dominant community has invariably ignored the interests of the Veddas.
Although at present, the self-identification of the forest dwellers differs radically from the definition of a "Vedda" (hunter) that was imposed upon them from outside with far-reaching social consequences, to outsiders, a "Vedda" was always a primitive human-type of wild disheveled appearance and uncouth language, who resides in caves or wanders in the jungle, and who subsists by primitive means such as hunting with bow and arrows.
However in reality, there was no remarkable difference to be observed even among them, since Veddas maintained a similar life-style as described above, till approximately 1980s. Despite of other meanings imposed later, the word "Vedda" was originally derived from the term "
Kele vedi" which means entered to forest, rejecting society as well as social values, becoming forest dwellers. Such backward trend of isolated communities had not been generally accepted and encouraged to be so either in past nor at present by any means of successive social structures.
The famous English slave-trader of the 17th century has mistakenly described rural villagers of Sri Lanka as Tame Veddas considering solely their standard of living. To Robert Knox, who wrote in 1681 after a captivity in Ceylon lasting 20 years, belongs the credit of having first described the Veddas in detail:
“Of these Natives there be two sorts Wild and Tame. I will begin with the former. For as in these Woods there are Wild Beasts so Wild Men also. The Land of
Bintan is all covered with mighty Woods, filled with abundance of Deer. In this Land are many of these wild men; they call them Vaddahs, dwelling near no other Inhabitants. They speak the
Chingulayes (sinhala) Language. They kill Deer, and dry the Flesh over the fire, and the people of the Country come and buy it from them. They never till any ground for Corn, their Food being only Flesh. They are very expert with their Bows. They have a little axe, which they stick by their sides, to cut honey out of hollow trees. Some few, which are near inhabitants, have commerce with other people. They have no towns nor houses, only live by the waters under a tree, with some boughs cut and laid about them, to give notice when any wild Beasts come near, Which they may hear by their rustling and trampling upon them. Many of these habitations we saw when we fled through the woods, but God be praised the Vaddahs were gone.
“Some of the tamer sort of these men are in a kind of Subjection to the King. For if they be found, though it must be with a great search in the woods, they will acknowledge his Officers, and will bring to them Elephant-teeth, and Honey, and Wax, and Deer’s Flesh; but the others in lieu thereof do give them near as much, in Arrows, Cloth, etc. fearing lest they should otherwise appear no more.
“It had been reported to me by many people, that the wilder sort of them, when they want Arrows, will carry their load of Flesh in the night, and hang it up in a Smith’s Shop, also a Leaf cut in the form they will have their. Arrows made, and hang by it. Which if the Smith do make according to their Pattern they will requite, and bring him more Flesh: but if he make them not, they will do him a mischief one time or another by shooting in the night. If the Smith make the Arrows, he leaves them in the same place, where the Vaddahs hung the Flesh.
“About Hourly the remotest’ of the King’s Dominions there are many of them, that are pretty tame, and come and buy and sell among the people. The King once having occasion of an hasty Expedition against the Dutch, the Governor summoned them all in to go with him, which they did. And with their Bows and Arrows did as good service as any of the rest but afterwards when they returned home again, they removed farther in the Woods, and would be seen no more, for fear of being afterwards pressed again to serve the King.
They never cut their hair but tie it up on their Crowns in a bunch. The cloth they use, is not broad nor large, scarcely enough to cover their Buttocks. The wilder and tamer sort of them do both observe a Religion. They have a God peculiar to themselves. The tamer do build Temples, the wild only bring their sacrifice under Trees, and while it is offering, dance round it both men and women.
“They have their bounds in the Woods among themselves, a one company of them is not to shoot nor gather honey or fruit beyond those bounds. Near the borders stood a Jack Tree; one Vaddah being gathering some fruit from this tree, another Vaddah of the next division saw him, and told him he had nothing to do to gather Jacks from that tree, for that belonged to them. They fell to words and fr
om words to blows, and one of them shot the other. At which more of them met and fell to skirmishing so briskly with their Bows and Arrows, that twenty or thirty of them were left dead upon the spot.
“They are so curious of their Arrows that no smith can please them: The King once to gratify them for a great Present they brought him, gave all of them of his best made Arrow-blades: which nevertheless would not please their humour. For they went all of them to a rock by a river and grounded them into another shape. The Arrows they use are of a different fashion from all other, and the Chingulays will not use them.
“They have a peculiar way by themselves of preserving Flesh. They cut a hollow of a tree and put honey in it, and then fill it up with flesh, and stop it up with clay. Which lies for a reserve to eat in time of want.
“It has usually been told me that their way of catching Elephants is, that when the Elephant lies asleep they strike their axe into the sole of his foot, and so laming him he is in their power to take him. But I take this for a fable, because I know the sole of the Elephants foot is so hard, that no axe can pierce it at a blow; and he is so wakeful that they can have no opportunity to do it.
“For portions with their Daughters in marriage they give hunting Dogs. They are reported to be courteous. Some of the Chingulays in discontent will leave their houses and friends, and go and live among them, where they are civilly entertained. The tamer sort of them, as hath been said, will sometimes appear, and hold some kind of trade with the tame Inhabitants, but the wilder called
Ramba Vaddahs never show themselves.”
From Knox’s account it is evident that in his time or a little before this, some of the Veddas were in touch with the court and were even sufficiently amenable to discipline to be of use as an auxiliary fighting force, indeed, there is abundant evidence that long before this a part of the inhabitants of Ceylon, with enough Vedda blood in them for their contemporaries to call them Veddas, were politically organised and constituted a force whom the rulers of the island found it necessary to consider.
The necessity of using Vedda's skills for the benefit of the society has not yet been underestimated even today. Unfortunately their contribution in parallel with the main stream of society has never been updated as required. For instance, although, they seemed to be good at honey collecting, they have failed in bee-keeping. Veddas were respected as born mountaineers using herbaceous ropes (Climbers) but non of their descendants have shown themselves to be interested in participating at various competitions of climbing as a sport as mountaineering. First of all they are extremely proud of having expertise on archery. But no one of Vedda community has yet been an archer in sports. As a result of this Veddas are commonly treated as poachers who only use; their talent in archery to kill protected animals in woods; their skills of moutaineering to gather wasp-honey ("
Bambara Peni") from rock-edges and sell it as fake bee-honey to urban people; and ability of trekking in woods to poach Elephant Tusks, leather and flesh. Despite of their proved inability in cultivation some of the Veddas had been very successful in undertaking plantations of Cannabis-a narcotic drug (
Kansa) in the middle of jungle.
The establishment of forest rules and regulations, in Sri Lanka, goes back to the
King Dutugamunu period of 161 to 137 B.C. The King was generally considered the rightful owner of the forest lands. The community managed their forest resources with great care, while protecting the natural balance of the ecosystem. A drastic change in land use policy after foreign invasion resulted in denudation of the natural forest. The forest reserve of nearly 80 percent in 1881 was reduced to 70 percent in 1900, 44 percent in 1956, and is less than 25 percent at present. Opening up of plantation crops, expansion of agriculture, land settlements, rising incomes, and changing life styles have caused over-exploitation of the forest. The policy measures that were taken time-to-time attempted to solve problems and improve the forest resources through sustainable management strategies.
Forests are very important for environmental conservation and as sources of food, fuelwood and minor forest products, such as resins, gums, and medicines. The forest provides space for recreation, shade, and other amenities. In most developing countries, with the increase of population, deforestation is continuing very rapidly. About three billion cubic meters of wood are harvested or consumed annually in the world. The most serious consequences of deforestation and forest degradation are the loss of biodiversity, irregular water supply, shortened life span of irrigation channels and reservoirs, soil erosion, and loss of soil fertility. On the other hand, the low increment of volume of growing stock and high pressures of demand have led to a scarcity of timber, fuelwood, and non-timber forest products.
The assessment of land and resource suitability for area zoning and classification is required to develop scientific information on land and forest types in order to develop management strategies. Hence, the government has classified forestlands according to the following management strategies.
1. Class I Forest: These forests should be strictly conserved or preserved to protect biodiversity, soil and water, historical, cultural, religious, and aesthetic values. Research is allowed in these areas.
2. Class II Forest: Non-extractive use, such as scientific research, protection of watersheds and wildlife habitat, and regulated nature-based tourism, should be allowed, as well as the controlled collection of non-wood forest products and dead fuelwood by local people living adjacent to the forests.
3. Class III Forest (multiple use): These forests should be managed primarily for the sustainable production of wood for the national interest on the basis of management plans to be developed by the government, and for the sustainable production of wood and non-wood forest products for the benefit of adjacent communities.
4. Class IV Forest: These consist of forest plantations and agroforestry systems on government lands. These lands would be managed for the production of wood and non-wood forest products by the government and non-government sectors. Deforested and degraded government lands suitable for plantation forestry and agroforestry development would also be included in this class.
However, the development of a widely accepted, explicit land use and forest policy and an integrated, comprehensive, long-term framework for the implementation of such a policy is vitally important for finding effective and sustainable solutions to the multitude of problems prevailing in the forestry sector. Hence, the study of the trends in forest policy in Sri Lanka has become of paramount importance for making recommendations for future promotion of forest resources in the country.
Traditionally the King was the rightful owner of the forest as well as the rest of the country. This rule had been strictly observed until the end of the Seitawake Kingdom and the beginning of occupation of lowland by Portuguese and their henchmen at the end of 16th century. The Dutch administration had estimated in 1794. that 80 percent of the total land area (6.56 million hectares) was covered with forest. During the Dutch period large quantities of timber of certain species (e.g., ebony) were exported to Holland and other European countries, which resulted in these species becoming almost extinct in the country. The consumption of timber in the country itself was very small, and much timber was available from private lands. The Dutch introduced teak at the end of the 17th century and many plantations were established near the coast.
The British administration took over all uncultivated land and made drastic changes in land use. During their rule, forests in the wet-zone hills were cleared to plant export crops such as coffee and tea, and dry-zone forests were cleared for export of valuable timber. Almost half of the forest cover (2.7 million hectares) was lost within a period of 150 years, from 1815 on, due to clearing and opening up of plantations. Timber felled indiscriminately under licenses before 1835 depleted valuable timber supplies, especially ebony and satinwood. Eventually, the major changes in land use and land policy resulted in almost complete denudation of the forest. Forest conservation: A Forest Ordinance was passed in 1855 to regulate shifting cultivation and forest reservations. The Department of Wildlife established 11 national parks (160,000 ha), 5 nature reserves (60,000 ha), and 50 sanctuaries (256,000 ha) in 1885. The first Conservator of Forest was appointed and passed on administrative control over the country’s main forests in 1899 after creating the Forest Department. However, the Government Agent still administered a few less valuable “Provincial Forests” until 1904. They had granted free collection rights to poor rural people both of fuelwood and minor forest produce within a three-mile radius of their villages if located near forest areas. By 1920, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), a country eminently suitable for the production of timber, was importing wood, mainly chests, from Japan and teak from Burma. Regarding the policy issues the first authorization of national forest policy in Sri Lanka was made in 1929, considering that Sri Lanka had more than enough forest land at the time. The main objectives of the Forest Policy in May 1929 were
1. to make the island self-supporting in timber, fuelwood, and other essential forest products, both by the systematic exploitation of existing natural resources and by the artificial reforestation of selected areas;
2. to provide timber and forest products for export to the world market;
3. to conserve water supply and prevent erosion; and
4. to co-ordinate forest operations with the requirement of the preservation of the indigenous fauna and flora.
The government decided in 1934 to take measures to make the best possible use of the country’s forests for the benefit of the whole community. The forests were divided into two categories: (1) forest reserves and (2) other crown forests, which could be exploited for commercial purposes. Sri Lanka’s national forest policy was redefined in 1953, five years after Independence, with the following priorities:
* to maintain, conserve, and create forests for the preservation or amelioration of local climate conditions and soil and water resources, and for the protection of local fauna and flora, where they are required for aesthetic, scientific, historical, or economic reasons;
* to ensure and increase, as far as possible, the supply of small wood for agricultural equirements
and fuelwood for domestic consumption;
* to maintain a sustained yield of timber and other forest products for the general housing, industrial, communications, and defense requirements of thecountry;
* to work the forests to the highest possible economic advantage as is consistent with the foregoing objectives.
This was followed up by Forest Policies of 1970, 1980 and 1995 being the clear evidence of politically motivated forest management of post republic governments since 1970. Since the priorities of forest policy in Sri Lanka have drastically changed throughout the country’s history, the main objective of forest policy has shifted from sustainable management of forests by the community during the classical period of Sinhala Kings, a supply of timber by foreign rulers, the protection of forest resources after Independence, and recently, to the management of forests as an economic resource. However, the multiple objectives in terms of conservation, production, and rural development in the current policy show again the increasing trends towards sustainable forest resource management.
The involvement of local communities in effective conservation of protected forests is still a difficult task. Joint forest management and leasehold forestry have become promising strategies for scientific management of a multi-purpose forest, which allows sharing the benefits of forests among the stakeholders as common goods. The integrated and participatory approach in the management of watersheds is directing the community to adopt appropriate farming systems to regenerate vegetation, preserve the soil, and increase the productivity of highly degraded lands. Many forest plantations have been established as a common policy since the foreign administration. The establishment and management approach of forest plantations has been moved from government plantations, community forest lantations, and presently, to the commercial forest plantations by private sector on lease agreements.
With the amendment of forest policy with social forestry in the 1980s, the government has implemented several people-driven, people-centered community forestry programs to grow trees on common lands with the view of producing fuelwood and other forest products, protecting natural forests, and providing employment and some income to the local communities. Compared to community forestry programs on common lands, agroforestry and growing forest trees in home gardens are becoming very popular strategies that provide the rural people with secure rights, indivisible benefits, and restoration of the agricultural ecosystem.
The Department of Wildlife Conservation was created as a separate department in 1949. The national reserves and sanctuaries under the department cover 781,000 hectares as protected areas. State forest policy is also needed to obtain the best use of wildlife areas, which comprise 40 percent of the forested area in the country. Because already the wildlife forests are poorly stocked with timber, they have to be managed for recreational and tourism purposes. However, the government has considered forest-based tourism, eco-tourism, as a substantial source of income and a wiser use of resources as supplemented income.
The management of forest resources in national reserves and sanctuaries ha
s not been functioning under scientific norms. In harvesting timber the government agencies do not follow scientific techniques. However, illegal felling, which has led to over-cutting, is still a serious drawback of forest management without proper legal procedures. All illegal activities are strongly involved with politics as well as politicians of Sri Lanka. They have unofficially downgraded national reserves and sanctuaries to be exploited as well as occupied by local residents for decades. This backward trend cannot be considered as unique only to Sri Lankan politics because for instance in September 2005 the President of Kenya gave the famous
Amboseli National Park back to the local
Massai tribe, causing an outcry; Who should own Kenya's parks?
Watered by underground streams from mount
Kilimanjaro, marshes and grasslands of Amboseli provide a dry-season refuge for 1,400 elephants that draw visitors to Kenya from all over the world. The savannas around Amboseli is also battleground, where wide-ranging of wildlife comes into conflict with growing numbers of Massai people and their cattle.
The Massais realize how hard it is to feed and water cattle during the dry season with limited access to the springs and swamps the Kenyan government took when it created the 151 square mile park in 1974. Massais armed with spears know how the animals that atract tourists to this iconic landscape can intrude violently into human lives. They have seen children gored by buffalo while walking to school, family cows crushed by elephants and mauled by lions, and fields of maize and beans trampled or eaten by herds of Zebras, Eland and Gazelles.
Although, educated Massais who were raised on the dusty plains around Amboseli National Park, understand the cost of preserving wildlife, the short-term consequences of Kenyan president's action may lead the other local communities that live around protected areas to demand downgrading of parks and sanctuaries to be controlled and exploited by them through their local political bodies. People of Sri Lanka who live near sanctuaries and forest reserves are not intruded by lions but the human-elephant conflict is more controversial due to devastation of lives, property and cultivation by wild elephants. All agree that the locals around national parks and sanctuaries are benefited much less than expected and the governments should finding ways- like investing more of the revenues- for local people to benefit from protected areas. Despite of these facts there should be no excuse for official or unofficial downgrading of National Parks, Sanctuaries and Forest Reserves in Sri Lanka.
It is worth finding the current situation in Amboseli National Park about four years after the degradation. By mid-February 2010, Amboseli's zebra and wildebeest population has been decimated by drought and the park's carnivores are now roaming far and wide in search of food, killing cows, donkeys and goats tended by Maasai pastoralists.
The herders have also lost a significant chunk of their livestock during the prolonged dry spell and now some are killing lions to stop their precious herds dwindling further.
To try and stem the near-daily attacks and temper the anger in surrounding villages, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is moving 7,000 herbivores -- 4,000 zebras and 3,000 wildebeest -- to the park's expansive plains in Southern Kenya near the Tanzanian border in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro.
The attacks are occurring almost every day, especially in the evening. Almost every night such incidents of depredation (basically it involves lions and hyenas) are reported to the Amboseli National Park.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been more than 50 attacks and two lions have been killed. In three night-time raids this week, lions killed four cows, two goats and a donkey. Kenya's lion population has dwindled to just 2,000 from 2,700 in 2002.
.svg.png)
