Forest fires, deliberate in some cases, finish off native plants
The Nilgala herbal forest in the Monaragala District from where medicinal plants are obtained for Ayurvedic treatments was among several areas from where wildfires were reported this week.
Forest fires, mostly in parts of the Baddulla and Monarag ala Districts destroyed plants and animals as well as endemic and rare plants.
Adviser of the Uva Provincial Department of Ayurveda, Piyal Marasinghe, said highly valued medicinal plants could become extinct if such wildfires caused by humans continued.
“Although large medicinal trees such as Bulu, Nelli and Aralu survive these fires, rare herbal plants like Vanaraja, Kadulessa, Bin Kohomba suffer significant damage during July and August when forest fires are more common,” he said.
He said herbs such as Bin Kohomba which are effective in treating viral flu and threatened species including Duhudu have been destroyed in forest fires reported in the Nilgala forest.
According to a report by the Forest Department last year, fires had damaged more than 2,300 hectares (5,683 acres) of forest cover. This year, Monaragala and Badulla were the worst affected. Last year, 469.9 hectares ( 1,161 acres) and 229 hectares (565 acres) of forest cover was affected in Badulla and in Monaragala districts respectively.
This year, an estimated 161 ha ( 400 acres) have been destroyed in forest fires in the Monaragala District.
Districts such as Matale and Kandy which were severely affected by forest fires last year with about 257.8 ha (637 acres) and 240.3 Ha ( 593 acres) respectively, they have not yet been significantly affected this month. However, district officials predict more fires, especially during August.
A few other incidents were also reported at the beginning of this month in Anuradhapura District.
A H Ravindra Kumara, assistant director of the disaster management unit, Monaragala District, said the dry spell is the major reason for the rapid spread of the fires.
At the time we were speaking to him on Thursday evening, he said out of the four forest fires reported on Wednesday, two had been doused with the assistance of the area residents, forest conservation officials and the army while the other two in Kotabowa shrub jungle and Ku m b u k k a n a Kalawalaragama reserve had not been doused.