Let us enjoy the wilderness in peace and quiet
I had been visiting Yala, long before the first mobile network came to Sri Lanka. I have observed the disastrous developments in the national park once Yala started getting mobile reception.
Most of the jeeps enter the Yala NP without a tracker and the drivers work both as the tracker and the driver. They enter the park with a mobile phone at their ears. No sooner they hear about a leopard sighting, hell opens up.
They speed up, sometimes up to 80 km to rush to the point violating all discipline inside a national park. We have observed killing of small animals on the road due to this. The diesel smoke emitted by their jeeps mixing up with uprising dust due to their speed causes much air pollution. Sound pollution is another problem. Above all, there is much danger to the visitors inside the jeeps.
When they reach the site, some even go off the designated roads, blocking the view of the others. Sometimes due to the forward and reversing movements of the jeeps at the point, the diesel smoke and the jeep noise is unbearable. The final result is that the animal moves inside the jungle.
If the mobile network is not there from the time they enter the park the drivers will have to keep looking for the animals, thereby eliminating the need to speed up, thus eliminating all the above problems. More so they will be able to see the other animals and the beauty of the national parks which were shown to us in the good old days!!
There were instances where foreign tourists were brought in, just to show the leopards for some dollars and there had been arguments when they failed to do so.
Some feel communication should be there in the event of an accident or vehicle failure. I wish to point out that the chances of this are remote unless someone is doing a crazy drive. Even if there is a problem, if you are on a designated road there will be enough vehicles passing by to help. Further our biggest National Park, Wilpattu, does not have any mobile network and no chaotic situation like that in Yala takes place there!
This communication tower and the networks were started as a security precaution against an LTTE attack. However now such a threat does not exist and there is no need of it. We must allow the wildlife, fauna and flora to thrive in peace as well.
The communication blockage is for three hours in the morning and afternoon. By taking these networks away we can have peace and harmony with the wildlife inside the park.
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