{"id":7961,"date":"2012-07-13T07:04:59","date_gmt":"2012-07-13T11:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=7961"},"modified":"2012-07-13T07:06:06","modified_gmt":"2012-07-13T11:06:06","slug":"trees-on-wijerama-mawatte-cut-down-to-widen-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=7961","title":{"rendered":"Trees on Wijerama Mawatte Cut down to Widen Road!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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photo by Gemunu Wellage<\/p><\/div>\n

By Thulasi Muttulingam<\/strong><\/p>\n

T<\/strong>he traffic situation in Sri Lanka is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Fed up with congested, inefficient and uncomfortable public transport, more and more of the urban middle class are opting for private vehicles as soon as they can afford it.<\/p>\n

The city infrastructure to accommodate all those vehicles is not keeping up though. Commuters out and about during peak times such as office \/ school opening and closing times know all about the travails of travel on Colombo roads.
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\nThere is always some segment of the population agitating for something \u2013 so while one segment would undoubtedly have agitated for wider roads and better traffic control systems, another segment, the tree lovers and environmentalists of Colombo, are deeply upset over the repercussions of cutting down trees to widen roads.<\/p>\n

Felling of trees to widen roads<\/p>\n

The latest victim is Wijerama Mawatha in Colombo 7. In the green city of Colombo (which is still known as one of the few \u2018green\u2019 cities of Asia), Cinnamon Gardens is one of the greener suburbs. Though the numerous Cinnamon trees that gave it its name are long gone, it is still a high-priced residential area, and as such, enjoys comparatively better perks than most other areas of Colombo. One of these symbols of prosperity, as it were, is the number of massive trees flanking the roads, providing much needed shade.<\/p>\n

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photo by Gemunu Wellage<\/p><\/div>\n

Unfortunately Colombo 7 being prime real estate, many well known schools and institutes also dot the area. Translation: large number of traffic by the vehicles of upper class parents dropping off \/ picking up their children from school.<\/p>\n

Result: road widening!<\/p>\n

Translation: felling of trees!<\/p>\n

According to Jayantha Guruge, Director Works of the Colombo Municipal Council, trees are being cut down on both sides of Wijerama Mawatha because of the traffic flow problem in the area. He was the only official who could be reached, to give at least some clarification on the issue.<\/p>\n

Officials at the Ministry of Defence, which oversees the Colombo Beautification Programme, kept on transferring the line until someone finally had the courtesy to hang up. A typical tactic of many government ministries when they are asked to clarify anything. Neither the Colombo Mayor nor the Municipal Council Commissioner could be reached. The head of the Environment section of the Urban Development Authority brusquely said she had \u2018nothing to do with the cutting down of trees.\u2019 Asked to clarify who was, she replied, \u2018I have no idea,\u2019 before hanging up.<\/p>\n

The Chairman of the Central Environment Authority, Charitha Herath, was more polite, but didn\u2019t have anything to add either. He seemed genuinely surprised about the issue.
\n\u201cThey are cutting down trees? Where exactly? I am sorry; I haven\u2019t heard anything about this.\u201d He said, if it was true, then it wasn\u2019t with the concurrence of the CEA, but was hasty to add;\u201dThe CMC and UDA do not need our concurrence however. They do have the power to cut down trees where necessary. Let me check with them and get back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ceylon Today visited the scene at around 3.00 p.m., on Monday however, the road seemed quiet and subdued. There was hardly any traffic and even the CMC workers were not to be seen. The only evidence of their work was uprooted trees, tree stumps and a bull dozer.<\/p>\n

The scene now<\/p>\n

A group of workmen and their supervisors in the area turned out to be not from the CMC, but Dialog. Apparently the sudden uprooting had disconnected some Dialog cables and so the company had sent workers to inspect the damage.<\/p>\n

Most of the passersby were students from the nearby educational institutes strolling about during breaks. When asked their opinion of the trees being cut down, they expressed dismay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is such a pity. These trees were massive and gave a lot of shade. They were also very pretty. They beautified the neighbourhood. We didn\u2019t want them cut down.\u201d courtesy: Ceylon Today<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Thulasi Muttulingam The traffic situation in Sri Lanka is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Fed up with congested, inefficient and uncomfortable public transport, more and more of the urban middle class are opting for private vehicles as soon as they can afford it. The city infrastructure to accommodate all those vehicles is not keeping up though. …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Trees on Wijerama Mawatte Cut down to Widen Road!’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7961"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7966,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961\/revisions\/7966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}