Shehan De Zoysa inspires memoirs from the 12-million-tree-man, Palitha Samarakoon who was awarded the Life Time Presidential Award by Chandrika Kumaratunga in.... and the prestigious Lions Award by the Trinity College Kandy in 2005 for his contributions to the country.

He began his plantation work in 1967 and ended up planting 12-million trees all over Sri Lanka in his 40-year career as a senior administrator.

Mr. Palitha Samarakoon did his post graduate studies in Integrated Regional and Rural Development in Israel and Kenya in 1984 and worked for 40 years as a senior administrator in the Tea Plantations sectors, Mahaweli Authority and Nestle International Ltd.

Shehan De Zoysa a travel writer (UK) interviews the man responsible for turning the dry-zone in to a green haven. Galnewa area that was desert-like 20 years ago is now a green-canopy garden giving pleasure and shelter to many a passerby.

I, with the help of my team ended up planting 12 million indigenous trees in the Mahawell systems H, B, C, G and Uda-wallawe and later in Colombo and the North Central Province.

I commenced my career as a professional tea planter in 1969 for Uva Ceylon Estates, a Scottish Company and was in charge of an estate called Glenalpin Group in Badulla. I was educated at Trinity College.

It all began with a live-stock assignment for Mahaweli

The late Gamini Dissanayake chose me to pioneer the livestock program in the Mahaweli systems. I joined Mahaweli on a full time basis.

Yes, the comfortable life I enjoyed as a planter was not to be found here in the remote Kalawewa area, but the job satisfaction derived, was immense.

I moved with my family to live in a renovated-bungalow near the bund of Kalawewa. My wife a trained teacher was supportive of the cause and the young children attended the Galnewa Central (later boarding school).

My livestock assignment ended in two years. By then we had pioneered four livestock farms, established milk collection centers and trained farmers in the art of milking cows which had not been done before. Late Mr. Chris de Sarem took over from that point onwards and took the project to greater heights.

Firstly, it’s all interconnected and all parts of natural environment. Once the livestock project was pioneered then I was given the challenge of reforesting the Mahaweli systems (areas).

In the late 50’s when I was only 8 years I saw a rat-snake embedded in hot tar in the middle of the road due to the fact that there was no tree cover. The message was loud and clear-trees and more trees must be planted along the streets of this hot, desert-like country.

I had to learn everything from scratch. I quickly learned about the plants that better suited the dry climate. The Kumbuk tree which we normally thought grew only in wet land was very successfully grown on the higher grounds.

Those days to burn a Kaluwara log for firewood was not a problem. It was clear that people had to be disciplined first before venturing further. The police support at the time came in handy allowing us to proceed with the tree planting. Another area where we had to be meticulous was costing - everything had to be accounted for starting from the seed in the nursery to a growing tree in the field. And if memory serves me correct one avenue plant in its fifth year cost us around 75 rupees inclusive of fertilizer cost, irrigation, supervision and protection in 1981. And after 23 years the monetary value of a tree is in thousands and environmental value of a tree, priceless!

It is true, this was to be a reforestation project within a settlement, where people from all over had been recently settled in the Dry zone. I had to consider their needs such as firewood, food, medicinal needs, and timber for housing. So it had be a community based forestry program.

For us to advance further we had to draw up an assessment-report explaining the two factors of the project and Mahaweli authority was quick to give approval.

1) Conservation of existing forest took priority - priority was given to existing forests.

2) Over 50,000 acres of forest had to be conserved in patches which was more challenging than one continuous area.

Upon our completion of system H or Kalawewa, we were asked to take over all Mahaweli systems. The year was 1984 and now I had been given the responsibility to extend the same program to all Mahaweli systems which covers virtually 1/3 of the country’s extent. A daunting task indeed.

We had to be vigilant. We established conservation units in all forests. And a flying squad went around on surprise visits to keep guards constantly alert. We were that strict.

And to see the denuded forest after two years of strict conservation was a reward enough. It was refreshing to see the new plants sprouting out inviting animals to come out from their enclosures for a bite. Fauna that was non-existent was seen coming out of their habitats as they felt safe and enriched by the new greenery. The much spoken of Na Uyana in Galkiriyagama in System H was one such forestry project that we started to conserve with great success and with the least amount of hype that we see today.

Rasvehera was another forest that we conserved with rapid recovery. Those days we followed this truism which said - ‘we go to a forest to pick firewood and not cut firewood’.

Yes, it wasn’t a case of all work and no fun; the many herds of elephants that frequented the catchment of Kalawewa provided ample entrainment for the visitors at the famous Kalawewa Circuit Bungalow, to enjoy over a cup of tea. We have had the best of them from Queen Elizabeth to many presidents staying at this circuit bungalow.

Not to my knowledge, some of these strictly conserved areas today are sadly no more. For example the jack plantation as you approach Kekirawa town (Kailapathana) has been encroached with barber saloons and tea kiosks. The fires they burn under the jack trees will definitely kill the trees.

On a positive note, we went from conservation of Jack trees to planting them, which led to us planting 150 acres of Jack forests. Today these trees are in full bearing with the surplus fruits even sold to more distant villages.

Nurseries, setting up of nurseries is very important to ensure that we have a ready source of plant-material for our use. My first nursery of about 50,000 plants was behind my bungalow. This was more an experiment, the labour was untrained and the techniques required for an indigenous nursery with 15 to 20 species is complicated to say the least.

Since there are many species, the seeding takes place at different times. Germination techniques are different and the most difficult of all is the location of mother trees. Since some trees do not seed annually.

School children and villagers were used for collection purposes, giving them a chance to earn pocket money; we paid them well and did not penny-pinch. Finally, every Mahaweli system had its own large nursery producing well-over 500,000 plants a year.

Professionalism, punctuality and time-framing were all adhered to although most of the nurserymen had no or little professional qualifications in time they came to be excellent nursery men with a good know-how. So Ginadasas, Appuhami’s and Ranbanda’s were at the helm with all the authority they needed for performance. They had to perform. My objective was to get 100% performance from them and nothing else was accepted.

This was our showpiece; one could see it from the road while driving and assess the beauty of our work. Other work was in the interior and not so visible. 1200 miles of avenue planting was done in villages which traced paths into the jungle; paths were planted in all systems.

The avenue-plants stand up to 30 to 40 feet today - a majestic sight for anyone driving by. The combination of species planted is as follows; Khomba, Seeyambala, Goda-kirila, Ahela, Mai-mara, Pare-Mara, Mangoes, Aralu, Bulu, Nelli, Murutha, Karada, Kumbuk, and even few Tabubea’s here and there to add to the landscaping.

So this mixture of species was to provide shelter, fruits, ornamental-value, herbal and of economic benefit to the villagers.

It doesn’t seem so. Majority of the avenue-trees are strong and look healthy. But it is sad to see vacant patches when I drive these areas. Some trees are now orphaned with no maintenance.

It should be a win-win situation but we must get down to it. I mean how are these achieved world over and how did we do it in the 80’s with no resources? One solution to this issue is to have low-growing trees (trimmed intermittently) below and tall trees towering over them on either side.

Once again, the ingredient that made our campaign successful was - maintenance.

Our first experience was Jayamawatha project where 72 miles of road (both sides) from Kalawewa to Notchiyagama were planted with valuable trees. One feels the full impact of it while going on bicycles in the heat, when it produces a refreshing breeze.

I now see in certain areas trees totally felled due to electric posts and as said before during my time we would have discussed and come to a compromise with these agencies. Today they take the easiest path and axe it off, without making an effort to save the trees.

We talk about the ozone layer that is fast eroding; to my way of thinking growing more trees is the quickest way to fix all of these problems.

Today if one is to start a nursery they can easily do it, for we have done the hard work for them by establishing the mother-tree after searching island-wide. So all the hard work is done for people wanting to start nurseries or propagate.

We had a small dry-zone zoo in the Kalawewa garden premises with ducks and geese in the pond, crocodiles, sheep on the lawn, deer park, sambur, a baby elephant and even horse and ponies. Many a visitor would come to appreciate the animals there. Horse riding was on at three in the evening for the children.

I had planned a drive-down zoo along Jayamawatha, making it a tourist attraction. In fact I had discussions with Mr Bradley Fernanado, then Director of Zoological Gardens and he showed a strong interest. However with my departure from Mahaweli due to the insurgency at the time and my name being on the hit list for strict disciplined I had to leave the Mahaweli on security advice to join the private sector.

With my departure all these future plans for our land died a sudden death, never to be implemented.

Plantations - Fuel wood and timber requirements had to be met and large acres of eucalyptus (on poor soil areas) and timber plantations were planned and executed. Home gardens on their perimeters were encouraged to plant timber species. Today it’s being harvested with great success. I hope after the harvest they will replant.

Reforestation - in the 50,000 acres of forest conservation there were vacant patches due to previous Chena cultivation. On a devised-plan we took patch by patch and in-filled with appropriate species. Infilling was never done with exotics we always strove to maintain the originality.

Herbal gardens - Every Mahawell system had its one herbal garden. The Village Vedamahathaya was fully involved. Since it was he who was going to make use of it. I see some of these gardens are well-maintained by the ministry of indigenous medicine. A fact for which we are thankful.

Landscaping - We had a unique plan to landscape the water body catchments wherever necessary. Kalawewa was one such area.

Overseas landscaping missions - I undertook landscaping missions overseas which were sponsored by the government. I landscaped a plot of land for then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Ziaul Haque.

Playground - Four playgrounds were developed by us - Galnewa, Giraduru Kotte, Bakamuna and Walawe. We imported grass seeds at that time for the turf and the grounds were always landscaped. Today, we see school students playing cricket on school holidays.

Educational program - The recipients had to be educated. We had a special unit going around schools and villages educating them on the necessity of a good environment. The audio-visual units of the Forest Department and the Wildlife were helpful in this connection.

The project came to an abrupt halt when the insurgents came to kill me. I had already risked my life a number of times on behalf of this project. Many did not understand my style of discipline; I was nick-named ‘the yakka-mahathaya’ (he laughs).

My last assignment was 100-foot road in Sooriya Wewa to Mirrija Villa (50 miles of planting on either side) - it was very difficult assignment due to elephants, and weather and cattle feeding on Kohomba. We put up a lovely Wadiya in Cajan with basic amenities. After landscaping it looked beautiful.

Without a doubt I would. I have written to the President informing him we could undertake a kind of avenue planting on all the highways in the future.

We were part of the team put together by Gamini Dissanayake who steered the Mahaweli to a success in a very short time.

I feel that there’s a lot more to be done even now and that we are still fit and very capable of handling any project of this nature. With sufficient support, resources and a good opportunity we would like to complete similar projects and welcome a chance to impart our knowledge to the next generation.

In conclusion I pay tribute to the late Mr Rohana Wijenayaka and Jayantha Jayawardene who were also planters working with me and even supporting me during our tenure in Mahaweli.