A bombshell allegation claims powerful political figures and business interests have quietly greenlit a carpeted road and safari jeep route across Sri Lanka’s Knuckles World Heritage Forest, risking irreversible damage to one of the island’s most sensitive ecosystems for quick tourist profits.
Environmental activist Sajeewa Chamikara has sounded a sharp public alarm, accusing Kandy District MPs E. M. Basnayake and Jagath Manuwarna, together with the Medadumbara Divisional Secretary and a circle of tourism businesses, of pushing forward an unlawful plan to pave a forest track and open it to commercial safari traffic inside the Knuckles Conservation Forest. Posting on his social media account, Chamikara alleged that an 8 kilometer stretch of mountain forest road from Thangappuwa to Attalamettuwa, Corbetts Gap has already received quiet approvals to be carpeted and turned into a jeep corridor despite its location in the heart of a protected, highly sensitive, UNESCO-listed landscape.
He identified the “Knuckles Tourist Circle” and several Knuckles safari jeep owners as collaborators, alleging they sought political sponsorship and obtained blessings to proceed. According to his account, the first decisive nod was delivered through the intervention of MP Jagath Manuwarna and state officers linked to the tourism circle. Chamikara says the key discussion took place under the banner of “tourism development,” hosted by the Department of Land Use Planning on 22 August 2025 at the International Buddhist Center in Thangappuwa, Rangala. He states that the Private Secretary to the Minister of Tourism, the Medadumbara Divisional Secretary, and officials from the Forest Conservation Department were present alongside Manuwarna when the signal to advance was given.
Chamikara further alleges that, under the current administration’s slogan “A Rich Country, a Beautiful Life,” the Central Provincial Road Development Authority began developing the Teldeniya to Corbetts Gap corridor with carpeting. He notes that construction is reported to be active on the rural section from Rangala to Thangappuwa, which lies outside the Conservation Forest boundary. The troubling next step, he warns, is the extension inward: widening, culverting, and carpeting the 8 kilometer mountain forest section from Thangappuwa to Corbetts Gap inside the Knuckles Conservation Forest itself.
He cites minutes and outcomes of the Medadumbara Regional Development Committee meetings on 30 September and 30 October 2025 to claim that a bloc of hotel owners and safari operators, previously accused of activities including illicit land deals in protected zones, pushed for immediate access. He alleges MP E. M. Basnayake and Medadumbara Divisional Secretary Nuwan C. Hemakumara then took steps that effectively opened the forest road and allowed safari jeeps to operate. For Chamikara, the implications are stark. The Knuckles or Dumbara Massif is among Sri Lanka’s most delicate ecological tapestries, home to narrow-range endemics and fragile microhabitats, and any roadworks that invite regular vehicular traffic can tip rare populations into decline or even global extinction.
The activist sets out a roster of local figures he believes are driving the project. He says the campaign is being steered with the blessing of the Chief Venerable Dr. Kendagolle Sumanaransi Thero of the International Buddhist Centre in Thangappuwa, Rangala, and is joined by a constellation of hospitality operators: Dickson Tennakoon of Knuckles Base Camp Hotel, G. K. G. Gunathilaka of Knuckles Sailan Bungalow, and other area businessmen including R. Madurasinghe, R. G. W. D. Thisera, A. M. G. C. Bandara, S. M. Trinesham, D. S. Dullwala, D. S. Tennakoon, A. S. Jayathilaka, K. G. K. Dharmaratne, and D. P. Kuruppu. The central charge is clear. In the name of tourist convenience and revenue, a coalition is seeking to reengineer a protected forest road into a permanent, high-impact artery.
Chamikara warns that the biological cost of such “development” arrives immediately and compounds over time. Clearing slopes and grading surfaces raise ground temperatures and collapse shade-dependent microclimates. Sensitive amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates, and understory plants that rely on constant moisture and stable leaf litter conditions lose their niches. The constant passage of jeeps splits wildlife ranges and creates chronic disturbance. Vehicle strikes kill small mammals, reptiles, and birds. When canopy gaps are opened along road margins, invasive plants like the notorious Katakalu Bovitiya colonise exposed peat and topsoil. Once entrenched, invasive shrubs displace native ground flora, degrading the entire food web. The result is not just a reduction in numbers. It is the cascading unravelling of tightly adapted communities that exist nowhere else on Earth.
For Chamikara, the bigger betrayal is moral and political. He points to the “Sustainable Biome – Evergreen Life” section of the administration’s pledge to voters, which promised environmental justice, ecosystem-based management, clean governance, the declaration and protection of sensitive ecological zones, and firm rules for the use of mountain forests. He recalls the National People’s Power “Earth Environment Policy,” which committed to identify highly sensitive zones through science and confirm them by law. In his telling, the alleged approvals and the hush-hush fast-tracking of a carpet road through a UNESCO site tear up those commitments. To him, it is proof that, like many manifestos before, these were glossy documents for the campaign trail rather than instructions for governing.
To underline what is at stake, he sketches the extraordinary ecological context. The Dumbara Massif is the principal watershed of the Mahaweli River, Sri Lanka’s longest. About 30 percent of the Mahaweli’s catchment lies within these mountains. The Hulu Ganga pours from the western slopes. The Kalu Ganga originates on the northern face of the eastern slopes. The Heen Ganga rises from the southern face. Together they feed the trunk river that irrigates farms, powers hydropower reservoirs, and waters cities downstream. Paving and widening forest roads in this headwater sponge can accelerate runoff, trigger erosion, destabilise slopes, and load silt into streams that are the veins of the Mahaweli basin.
Topographically, the Massif rises between 760 and 1900 meters. It features roughly 35 named peaks and 17 mountain ranges, including the high point Gombanigala at 1904 meters and well-known giants such as Knuckles at 1862 meters, Kirigalpottha at 1646 meters, Dumbanagala at 1642 meters, Kalupahana at 1628 meters, Vamarapugala at 1558 meters, Dothalugala at 1553 meters, Kehelpothdorowagala at 1528 meters, Pathanagala at 1514 meters, Thelambugala at 1331 meters, and Lakegala at 1317 meters. Along these ridgelines and saddles, the forest shifts rapidly with altitude and exposure, forming a mosaic of moist montane cloud forest, dwarf forest, moist submontane forest, intermediate montane forest, dry mixed evergreen forest, riparian gallery forest, and both wet and dry grasslands with pockets of scrub.
The plant diversity across these zones is legendary. On the highest ridges, cloud forests shelter endemic keena species such as Calophyllum trapezifolium and Calophyllum walkeri. There are scarce endemics like Garcinia echinocarpa and jewelled montane shrubs including Strobilanthes pulcherrima and Strobilanthes sexennis. In submontane wet belts, Sri Lankan endemics Elaeocarpus gladulifer and Myristica dactyloides flourish. In intermediate montane strata, Actinodaphne stenophylla and Drypetes gardneri stand out. Dry mixed evergreen forests carry Dimocarpus longan, Semecarpus nigroviridis, and Vitex altissima. Along rivers and streams, native Diospyros malabarica, Ficus hispida, Ficus racemosa, and Mangifera zeylanica anchor the riparian canopy. Wet grasslands host Elephantopus scaber, Exacum trinervium, Mollugo oppositifolia, Phyllanthus debilis, and Utricularia bifida, while dry grasslands hold Alstonia scholaris, Cynodon dactylon, Cymbopogon nardus, and the iconic Illuk complexes of Imperata cylindrica and Themeda tremula.
A World Conservation Union study catalogued 1033 flowering plant species from 141 genera in the Dumbara Massif, including 160 endemics. Of these, 225 are woody. The remainder are shrubs and herbs. The Dumbara contribution to Sri Lanka’s botanical inventory is astonishing. Roughly 27.4 percent of the country’s total recorded plant species and about 17.3 percent of Sri Lanka’s plant endemics appear here. Some plants are known from nowhere else on the planet. These include Calophyllum cuneifolium, the endemics Syzygium congylos, Syzygium madugodensis, Eugenia apica, a set of strictly local bamboos, the newly described Shakang Nabamajkabisi, and Brachystelma lankana which hides in leaf-rich floors. Epiphytes and orchids are prolific in the mist belts. Species such as Adrorhizon purpurascens, Eria bicolor, Podochilus falcatus, Malaxis purpurea, Pholidota imbricata, and Vanda tessellata dot the trunks and branches. Forty-two fern species are recorded, including six endemics. Rare fronds like Elaphoglossum spathulatum, Botrychium daucifolium, Huperzia phyllantha, and Psilotum nudum still survive, all of them vulnerable to edge effects along a paved corridor.
Faunal richness is equally compelling. Drawing on work by the World Conservation Union and independent researchers, 479 species across seven groups are recorded from the Dumbara Mountains. The list includes amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, mammals, butterflies, and land snails. Nine amphibians are strictly Dumbara endemics: the Dumbara bush toad Pseudophilautus fulvus, Hoffmann’s bush toad Pseudophilautus hoffmanni, the large-footed bush toad Pseudophilautus macropus, Moore’s bush toad Pseudophilautus mooreorum, Steiner’s bush toad Pseudophilautus steineri, Stuart’s bush toad Pseudophilautus stuarti, Hanken’s bush toad Pseudophilautus hankeni, the Dumbara rock toad Nannophrys marmorata, and the Dumbara curved toad Lankanectes pera. Narrow streams and shaded seepages where some of these species breed are precisely the microhabitats most threatened by road widening, drainage cuts, and heat spikes.
Ichthyofauna tell a similar story. Among fish recorded from the massif, one species is endemic to Dumbara, while species like gadaya Labeo fisheri and the Dumbara petiya Systomus martenstyni occur at several points along the Mahaweli and its branches within and around the massif. Dawkinsia srilankensis is listed as the Dumbara endemic. Later surveys tracked its range downstream to Deke Ela of the Mahaweli and suggest additional cryptic taxa may eventually be delineated as Dumbara endemics. In reptiles, Dumbara hosts four lizard endemics and three snake endemics. These include the Dumbara horned lizard Ceratophora tennentii, the Dumbara pygmy lizard Cophotis dumbara, Calotes pethiyagodai, the legless skink Smith’s snakehead Nessia bipes, Rhinophis phillipsi, Rhinophis gunasekarai, and Aspidura desilvai. Each is sensitive to vibration, noise, and edge openings caused by construction and vehicle passage.
Birdlife is emblematic. Thirty-two of Sri Lanka’s thirty-five endemic birds are recorded from Dumbara. Only three endemics known solely from the Sabaragamuwa highlands are absent. The forests and glades hold Sri Lanka Woodpigeon, Yellow-eared Bulbul, Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush, Sri Lanka Warbler, Dusky-blue Flycatcher, Hill White-eye, and the Sri Lanka Blue Magpie. These are charismatic anchors for low-impact eco-tourism that depends on keeping forest interiors intact and quiet. On the invertebrate side, the endemic spider Suffasia mahasumana is currently known only from Dumbara, and four freshwater crabs, Ceylonthelphusa sanguinea, Ceylonthelphusa callista, Ceylonthelphusa cavatrix, and Perbrinkia fido, are restricted to the massif. Road building and jeep traffic impact leaf litter humidity, streambed stability, and bank vegetation, all of which these species require.
The legal status of the massif is not a formality. It is a layered fortress built over 150 years that recognises the area’s irreplaceability. Since 1873, when the British declared Dumbara’s high montane cloud forests above 1500 meters as a climate reserve, the state has repeatedly tightened protection. In 2000, the Dumbara Hills were gazetted as a Conservation Forest under the Forest Conservation Ordinance. In 2007, non-government lands inside were declared an Environmental Protection Area under the National Environment Act. In 2008, the entire land envelope was designated a Soil Conservation Area under the Soil Conservation Act. In 2010, UNESCO inscribed Sri Lanka’s central highlands, including the Knuckles or Dumbara Massif, as a World Heritage Site under the 1972 World Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention. Sri Lanka ratified that convention in 1980, committing to safeguard the outstanding universal value of listed sites for all humanity.
Administratively, the massif spans four Divisional Secretariat divisions in Kandy District, and five in Matale District. The state’s core conservation instrument is clear. By Gazette 1130/22 of 5 May 2000, 17,825 hectares of government forests in Dumbara were declared Sri Lanka’s first Conservation Forest under the amended Forest Conservation Ordinance. The Environmental Protection Area overlay for non-government lands arrived by Gazette 1507/9 of 23 July 2007. The Soil Conservation Zone overlay was created by Gazette 1550/9 of 22 May 2008. These are not decorations on a map. They are hard boundaries with hard rules.
Why does Chamikara call the proposed road illegal. The Forest Conservation Ordinance requires that, once a Conservation Forest is declared, a management plan be prepared and implemented. Any action in the forest must be grounded in that plan. Ad hoc approvals by a tourism circle, a divisional office, or even MPs cannot override the law. Section 6 of the Ordinance prohibits unauthorized entry, felling, clearing, removing plants or plant parts, constructing roads, altering existing roads, or using roads in violation of management provisions. Conviction can mean up to seven years in prison, fines between 20,000 and 200,000 rupees, or both, plus court-determined compensation for ecological damage. Section 6(3) extends culpability to anyone aiding or abetting the offence. In plain terms, if a tourism official, jeep owner, MP, or a divisional officer helps to push an illegal road inside a Conservation Forest, the law treats them as offenders.
The National Environment Act adds another gate. Within an Environmental Protection Area, no one may prepare or implement a development plan without the prior consent of the Central Environmental Authority. Violators face fines or up to two years imprisonment, or both, on conviction. A separate 1993 regulation under Sub-section 23B declares that any development within 100 meters of a protected forest boundary, or within any Soil Conservation Area, requires written environmental approval after a full Environmental Impact Assessment. No agency can legitimately greenlight works inside or within 100 meters of a protected forest without an EIA. If a project is implemented without that process and approval, Section 31 penalties apply.
There is also a constitutional duty. Article 27(14) of Chapter Six of Sri Lanka’s Constitution binds the state to protect, preserve, and improve the environment for the benefit of the people. Every state institution has an obligation to enforce existing environmental laws, craft new safeguards, and avoid decisions that imperil ecological survival. If, as Chamikara alleges, public officers and elected representatives are spearheading a road that violates conservation law inside a World Heritage site, he argues that they are breaching the Constitution and denying citizens equal protection under Article 12(1). He calls it a breakdown of the rule of law and a betrayal by a political movement that promised to restore democratic order and environmental stewardship.
Chamikara’s final appeal is direct. He urges the President and the Environment Minister to wake from what he calls a yearlong slumber in the face of mounting ecological erasure. He asks them to intervene now, not after asphalt is poured, to halt any attempt by business groups, politicians, or officials to cut a permanent corridor through the Dumbara Massif. In his view, the true “Rich Country, Beautiful Life” lies not in fast tourist loops but in a living, resilient watershed, unbroken cloud forests, and the quiet survival of endemic species that future generations will never forgive us for losing.
The controversy does not unfold in an abstract space. It is about the fate of a real mountain road that threads through ridges where mists condense on moss-laden branches and drip into rills that make the Mahaweli. It is about a legal architecture constructed by generations to protect something that cannot be replaced once it is carved and paved. It is about whether development can respect thresholds and whether public authority will be exercised to shield the public good rather than smooth the path for private gain. Above all, it is about the oldest promise a government can make to its people. To pass on a land that is not diminished. To keep faith with the living world that sustains them.
Chamikara insists that the decision makers he names still have a choice. They can treat the Knuckles World Heritage Forest not as an obstacle to be engineered but as a legacy to be safeguarded. They can channel visitor demand into low-impact, community-led models that strengthen local livelihoods without slicing the forest open. They can invest in walking trails maintained to international standards, strictly controlled shuttle access at the margins, and rigorous enforcement against illegal land deals that have haunted the area for years. They can sponsor research stations and citizen science programs that turn tourists into guardians. They can set a national standard by placing ecological integrity above expediency.
If they do not, he argues, they will leave behind a road that goes nowhere worth going. A road that starts with promises and ends in silence, where the songs of Dumbara’s endemic birds fade, the amphibians in shaded seepages vanish, and the streams that feed the Mahaweli run shallow and brown after every storm. The world has many carpeted roads. It has only one Knuckles.
SOURCE :- LANKA C NEWS
