Home News Sri Lankan cardinal files petition in court to protect country’s wetlands

Sri Lankan cardinal files petition in court to protect country’s wetlands

Among the respondents of the cardinal’s petition are Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and State Minister Nalaka Godahewa

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo filed this week a petition before Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court to stop the acquisition of 3,863 hectares of wetlands by the country’s Urban Development Authority.

The proposal to develop the area reportedly involves the extraction of sand that will be used to cover almost 120 acres in Muthurajawela wetlands where a power plant is supposed to be built.

In his petition filed before the court on November 6, Cardinal Ranjith called for the cancellation of a notification needed for the acquisition of land in the wetlands.

He said the project would affect the livelihoods of the people and various religious sites in the area.




Among those named as respondents of the cardinal’s petition are Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, State Minister Nalaka Godahewa, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, the Urban Development Authority, and the Environment department, among others.

Muthurajawela is a marsh in Sri Lanka in the southern region of the Negombo lagoon, 30 km north of Colombo.

It is notable for its unique and highly diverse ecosystem and is listed as one of 12 priority wetlands in Sri Lanka.

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In 1996, a total of 1,777 hectares of the northern part of the Muthurajawela marsh was declared a wetland sanctuary by the government, under the Flora and Fauna Protection Act.

The region supports 192 distinct species of flora and 209 distinct species of fauna, including Slender Loris, as well as another 102 species of birds.

Some of the identified species have been shown to be indigenous to the marsh.

“The entire Catholic community and I are opposed to the works that are about to be carried out in this area,” said Cardinal Ranjith during a media briefing in July this year.

In a letter to the Central Environmental Authority, the cardinal said “no study has been conducted on the social and environmental impact of the project.”

“This government must keep in mind that the country does not belong to the president or to the ministers, but to the citizens, who have not allowed to carry out projects in an arbitrary way,” he said.

He said wetlands has been “violated by successive governments which have given hundreds of acres to big time businessmen from time to time.”

“How is it possible that a protected area becomes someone’s private land?” he told the media in a January 2021 interview.

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