• Off-season visitors often entered the forest  away from the pilgrims’ route and collected plants to be taken away

By Ajithlal Shanthaudaya   

Off-season visitors to Sri Padastana have caused extensive environmental damage to the Sri Pada route and its environs.   

Public Health Inspector in charge of Kuruvita –Erathna  route Rodney Prasad said haphazard disposal of litter including plastic  bottles and polythene without least concern about its damage has been  going on unchecked.   
He pointed out that the off-season visitors to Sri  Padastana should obtain permission from Ratnapura and Nuwara Eliya  District Secretariats and inform the police as well.   

The PHI said that most of the off-season visitors were  young men and women and that they caused damaged even to public property  including pilgrim’s rests and Ambalama resting places.   

“After every pilgrim season Kuruvita Pradehiya Sabha, with  the help of voluntary organisations clear the Sri Pada pilgrim route and  the surrounding area of all garbage disposed by the pilgrims. However,  the off-season visitors foil our endeavour to keep the Sri Pada route  clean until the next pilgrim season,” PHI Rodney Prasad further said.   

Meanwhile, Wildlife Officers said the off-season visitors  often caused damage to the rare endemic plants in the Sri Pada range.   

They said the off-season visitors often entered the forest  away from the pilgrims’ route and collected plants to be taken away.   

Traders running temporary stalls to provide refreshment to  the pilgrims said timber and other material they used would be stacked  safely without exposing to the elements of nature for the next season, but the off-season visitors used them to light bonfires.   

They requested the relevant authorities to work out a  mechanism to check the activities of the off-season visitors who were  not pilgrims.