|
Timber extraction is not
permitted within the Sinharaja MAB Reserve ; furthermore felling is not
permitted within a distance of 1 mile from the boundary of the Reserve.
However, selective felling is permitted in other forests surrounding the
Sinharaja and is carried out by the State Timber Corporation, mainly
through hired private contractors. These activities have led to the
Reserve more accessible to illicit timber merchants. Alleged malpractices
by the bona fide contractors themselves too have been reported. Here too
the lack of clearly demarcated boundaries and adequate supervisory field
staff are serious setbacks to enforcing the law.
Private land owners along the periphery of the Reserve are also known to
be illegitimate users of the timber resources within the forest. On the
pretext of felling and transporting timber which is on their own land,
these land owners also request permits to transport illicitly felled
timber out of the forest.
Collection of timber by the villagers
for their domestic purposes does not seem to make a significant impact on
the Reserve's resources. However, the villagers contribute indirectly to
the depredation by being the hired labourers used by unscrupulous timber
merchants. To the villager, firewood is the most important forest product
both because it is used for his own family as well as for the commercial
production of jaggery. The search for firewood is now as increasingly
arduous task for the villager and if efforts are not made to provide the
villagers with an made to provide the villagers with an alternate source
of firewood, their attention will soon be directed towards the readily
available trees within the MAB Reserve. In fact the selective removal of
favoured species such as Hedawaka (Chaetocarpus castanocarpus and C.
coriaceus) for firewood could even lead to their extinction.
|