VANISHING FOREST RESERVATION IN THE RURAL LANDSCAPE OF THE MAHAWELI SYSTEM 'C'

Thirimadura Indrasena Mendis
Department of Geography, University of Trondheim, Norway

This paper falls into three parts. In the first part, the process of destruction of forest reservation in the Teldeniyaya settlement of system `c' of the accelerated Mahaweli project is examined. In the literature on the major colonization schemes of Sri Lanka, the depletion and degradation of forest reservations have not been a tropic of academic concern. In this context, this paper attempts to identify the various activities that bring about the rapid depletion of forest reservation in a selected settlement in the accelerated Mahaweli project of Sri Lanka.

The second part of the paper deals with the observed changes in the rural landscape resulting from the destruction and subsequent replacement of the forest reservations in the study area. In particular, implications on the land use, land tenure, biotopes and settlement pattern of Teldeniyaya are examined in depth.

The third part of the paper attempts to explain the process of destruction of forest reservation in the planned landscape of the agricultural landscape. The analytical framework for this is to a considerable extent based on the previous studies that dealt with the irrigated settlements in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka and other developing countries.

Department of Forestry and Environmental Science,
University of Sri Jayewardenepura,Sri Lanka. 1999. All rights reserved.