LANKAN DIARY-6

LIFE FINDS A WAY EVEN AFTER TSUNAMI….

While enjoying beautiful coastal drive to reach Bantota, driver Lalu asked if we wanted to see the fort. Even before we could answer, he had driven inside the fort. Scorching sun outside made me apprehensive of getting out of air conditioner.
Since he had stopped, we stepped out and started exploring the fort. Like many forts in India, this fort also had a small establishment inside. Built by Portuguese, it was standing tall in the small city of Galle. While teenage lovers had occupied nook and corners of the fort, city looked beautiful from the top of it.
A beautiful bus stand opposite to fort, a cricket stadium, a port and fishing Warf were beautifully maintained. While returning to the vehicle, Chinnappa said that there was an Indian restaurant there and we could try lunch in that place. He told me that a girl gave some pamphlet about the restaurant. I had seen a girl in black dress and black cap talking to people and presumed that it was she. Since Prasad had already left for India, I, Chinnappa and Radha aunty headed to the restaurant.
The Moksha restaurant was inside fort complex. A small, but neatly done and only North Indian dishes were available. A very young girl was trying to understand the English slowly and taking orders. The girl in black dress entered the restaurant and asked what we had ordered. She reconfirmed our orders and asked the younger girl – Shalini to do something. They were conversing in Sinhalese and gave direction to the chef also.
The girl, may be in 19 or 20, was very smart and active. I noticed that she had wooed another four to five groups of customers to her restaurant. She took charge immediately and started doing most of the works in the restaurant. We three were in all admiration for this dark, short girl.
Her name was Shubha and Shalini looked like her younger sister. When I asked about the restaurant, Shubha said that it belonged to one Dr Gupta, an Indian and famous cardiac surgeon in the town. The restaurant was one month old and she was taking care of it. I complimented her saying that she was smart and she would travel a long distance in life, if she kept up her spirit. Even Chinnappa endorsed my views.
As we started our journey towards Bentota, Lalu said that this was one of the worst affected cities during 2004 Tsunami. Over 65000 people perished in the city and it was rebuilt. I remained silent for a moment and slowly said: ``the fort doesn’t look it was hit by Tsunami at all.’’
Even Chinnappa was wondering the same, when I suddenly remembered Shubha, who conversed in bit of Tamil with Chinnappa. The girl would be less than 10 years when Tsunami struck. Had I remembered that we were in the same city, I could have asked her if she remembered anything. The city is so beautifully rebuilt; one cannot believe the devastation Tsunami caused just 13 years ago.
On the way, we stopped for a boat ride in mangroves. I asked the boat driver about Tsunami. He was also in his early 20’s. ``Not much here…. Water had swollen by seven feet. But, they say that mangroves saved it from bigger disaster.’’
Tsunami had occupied my mind completely and the people here appeared to be spirited. At Turtle hatchery, I asked Vasanth, the person who was guiding me through. On the beach, he was showing me tracks of a huge turtle that had laid eggs previous night. ``It was not as big as Galle. But, 800 people had washed away. Even my hatchery had washed away and I had to rebuild it. For the first two years, tourists did not come at all. Life was very difficult and looking after turtle eggs was hard. Slowly they started coming back. Now, everything is alright. We are good now,’’ he said.
I could see entire coast line bustling with either fishing or tourism. Entire sea front, barring turtle breeding area has been given to tourism facility. People are busy making a living and also being very friendly. After all, life finds a way even after a Tsunami.

LANKAN DIARY-5

WHEN SITES MAINTAINED INTACT….

Internet gives a lot of information on any place. However, the thought process in the places we visit gives a different perception of the place altogether.

When I entered Kandy Botanical garden with three others, it looked normal. As we came out of Orchid enclosure, I felt the crowd management by the Botanical garden management was really good.

The garden, sprawling around 148 acres in the heart of the city is a colonial rulers’ gift. It has a lot of alien species of plants and trees. The first thought that came to my mind was that it was better than Botanical garden in Ooty. Besides, those manage Cubbon Park and Lal Bagh at Bengaluru have a lesson or two to learn from here.The crowd management is best here and the visitors will get their own free time and space to see the garden. Secondly, there is no new developmental work taken place within the garden, allowing it to retain its colonial look. This makes the garden more attractive.

The second place at Kandy was Udawattakele Royal Forest Park. It is on par with Golden Gate National Park at San Francisco, created to protect the red wood species. Nothing has been touched and it is pleasure to take five kilometer trek around the park. Historically it belonged to royal family of Kandy and there are mythological stories like Buddha’s tooth relics are in one of the cave. Once you enter inside the park, it resembles an old evergreen forest with very ancient trees.

There were many such serene places along Western Ghats and I know them personally. However, advent of Home Stays and mushrooming resorts have killed the tranquility.

All the four of us – Chinnappa, Radha aunty and Prasad just laughed at the idea of visiting Tea Estate at Nuwara Eliya or city of lights. Going by Indian mythology Ramayana, the place has a lot of significances. This is supposed to be one of the places burnt by Hanuman, when his tail was set on fire. Then, while driving towards Yala, there is Sitha temple, where it is believed to be Ashoka Vana. There is huge foot mark like thing on a rock, believed to be of Lord Hanuman. We also come across Rawana (Ravana) falls. Missing this drive is not advisable.

However, this sleeping town has a beautiful turf club in the heart of the city and another beautiful lake. The British tried to develop on the lines with England village and the weather resembles exactly of Ooty, with a lot of tea gardens. However, extremely clean town. Nothing much has changed after colonial rule, barring bunch of hotels to accommodate tourists.

People still grow export quality exotic vegetables here. I felt, the best thing to do in this town is nothing – sitting either in front of the turf club or the lake, sipping a tea. You will return in peace.

After meeting Chinnappa two decades ago, I have been up against captive conservation of wildlife. As I was approaching Bentota, I realized that we would be visiting an artificial turtle hatchery and not a natural place.

After much thinking, I and Chinnappa decided to take a shot at. There were tiny turtles in a tank, aged between one day to one week. In other tanks, there were different types of turtles – ranging from one year to 150 years. There was a separate enclosure of sand, where the turtle eggs were buried for hatching.

``Success rate is 80% and we will keep newborn for only two weeks, before releasing them to sea. We feed them with small prawns. Now, it is not season and daily, four to five turtles will come and lay eggs. In seasons, they come in hundreds. That time, it is a difficult job,’’ the hatchery owner said.

This stretch between Galle and Bantota, there is one small stretch which is popular turtle destination for nesting. The government has not allowed resorts or any other commercial establishment to come up in this area. Instead, the local people have been encouraged to open turtle hatcheries.

They protect the eggs from Iguanas and dogs and protect them in their yard. Once they hatch, they would be taken care for two weeks, before releasing them to sea. The big turtles are injured or sick. While some can be sent back to ocean after treatment, some, which would have lost their limb, may have to be taken care forever.

The hatchery owners are allowed to charge the visitors and most of the visitors are foreigners. This makes win-win situation for both. The extra mile thinking is that giving a boost to Sri Lanka tourism, I thought.

LANKAN DIARY - 4

HIDDEN PARTS OF PACKAGE TOURS

When I asked what the main economic activity of Kandy was, the two youths at Hotel reception were confused. They discussed among themselves in Sinhalese, but could not answer properly.

``Is it agriculture? tourism? industries? Which one is the main source of income here? ‘’ I elaborated.
``It is tourism. Not much agriculture in Kandy city. Next Is handicrafts and they are also exported,’’ one of them said. In outskirts of Kandy city, I had noticed agriculture activity, especially paddy fields. The rural Kandy has abundance of perennial water sources, despite of drought.
During the last three days, I had figured out that Sri Lanka had taken up tourism seriously and promoted every possible site to tourists, especially foreigners. There are different charges for SAARC country citizen and others.
When we talk about package tours, one has to confirm about entry fee to tourist spots. The entry fee is standardized with US or European visitors. The tourists from other countries may feel it bit expensive. Even the food appears to be expensive.
While most of my friends, who visit Sri Lanka would see one or two places and spend their time mostly in Colombo. Such hidden costs would not affect them, as they would be interested in other luxury facilities. However, one going for heritage tourism should be more careful, especially if they keep a budget in their mind.
For example, entry per person for Sigirya rock is around Rs 3000 (Sri Lanka currency), while Dambulla cave temple entry is Rs 1500 per person. Even compared to entry in Indian heritage sites, it appears to be expensive. The vehicles carrying tourists must pay Rs 100 entry fee and another Rs 100 parking fee. There are small temples, where entry fee has been fixed at Rs 300 per person, but vehicle entry and parking would be the same. At Embella temple, we were allowed to enter temple complex collecting entry fee. No one told us that temple was closed and would open only four hours later. We just returned without seeing anything.
I had mixed experience in paying for entry fee with my tourist operator as well as paying them here. For Wilpattu, I had paid complete expenses to my tourist operator, which had come up to Rs 18000 (Indian currency) for four people. However, we had to hire local safari organizers at Harabana and Yala, which worked out less than half of it.
Even the food looks expensive. An ordinary coffee costs anywhere between Rs 100 to Rs 150 for foreigners. A normal dish will not cost less than Rs 900. I realized that the tourism still works like a cooperative sector here. The foreign tourists are taken to particular restaurants and hotels, which are part of the chain. There are other restaurants available in every city, but one has to explore it by themselves, without the help of your guide or driver
However, travelling in Sri Lanka is a pleasure. I, Chinnappa and Prasad honestly felt that Lankans are
We just joked among ourselves: ``If our people in government have to learn road engineering, we should send them here. If we want to ruin Sri Lanka, we should send our people to construct road here.’’
Apart from traffic sense, Sri Lanka appears to have better law and order management. Every tourist spot has one Tourist Police check post. The police are friendly and always eager to guide you. The professionalism exhibited is as good as we find in private hospitality industries in India.
The other thing we noticed was girls and women walk alone even in the night. It was not just in towns and cities, but also in rural areas and dark places. It just showed safety level of women in Sri Lanka.
The best part of Sri Lanka is cleanliness. We did find some rural places, where sporadic plastic littering was there. However, we felt that it was one of the cleanest countries in Asia. It is not that the people will clean up the mess, but they just don’t litter….

better committed in their road works. The qualities of even narrow rural road were as good as our highways. No potholes, no speed breakers. People abide by traffic rules. Two wheeler riders, both rider and pillion wear helmets. Pedestrians get preference in cities, when they want to cross roads. No one is in hurry and they wait without honking till the pedestrians cross the road.

LANKAN DIARY-3.

 · 

TEMPLES OF WONDER

As I have observed, most of the people in India talk about casinos in Sri Lanka, which is becoming fast destination. However, the traditional tourism sites are something a traveler can not miss out.
Most of the temples—whether Buddhist or Hindu are old and some are not even on tourist map. However, the temples leave many questions unanswered over the technology used during that period or even some of the designs, similar to ones in India.
I was second time unlucky not to climb Sigiriya rock. First time, I had a decent view of the beautiful rock from main gate. This time, even that was not possible. All we could do was to have a side view from the main road.
But the case of Rangiri or Cave temple of Dambulla was different as I visited the caves second time also. Though Prasad and Radha aunty declined to climb the rock, Chinnappa wanted to give a try. I assured them that there was no need to climb till top of the rock, but they developed cold feet. I found much easier way to climb and Chinnappa was comfortable with it.
The cave mesmerized me as much it did first time, a decade ago. But, the way I looked at it was different. Even Chinnappa had many questions. We wondered how and what technology was used to construct such huge Buddha idols and how, they converted the caves into temples between 1st century BC and 18 century. We wondered if the statues were carved out of hard rock. I argued that it looked like limestone. I pointed at a small hole and some restoration work at arm of one of the statues. Chinnappa was not convinced, but a monk, outside the temple confirmed that it was limestone statues under hard rock. More wondering thing is the waterlines in the caves, which kept inner premises dry even during rains.
The other temple I was inspired with was Sri Dalada Maligawa Royal complex temple. Basically a Royal palace, it was later converted into Buddha temple. Buddha’s tooth relic is placed in the first floor of the complex, which is opened periodically during day time. The temple was attacked by LTTE once, where the suicide bomber had killed more than 20 people. However, it is restored now and well maintained. 
Though there is large influx of devotees, many of them carrying their newborn kids, the system does not allow people to be crowded. The colorful rituals add color to the temple. The temple also has a museum, which is worth watching.
Soon after coming out of the temple, Radha aunty was upset. ``Did you notice the number of tusks they had decorated in the temple? I counted at least 60 of them. How many elephants must have been killed for that?’’ she fumed.
It had gone unnoticed at least from my count. Chinnappa pacified her saying that every elephant might not have been killed. Many must have had natural deaths and the tusks were collected. Indeed, there is huge collection of tusks in the temple.
There are also some less known temples around Kandy and usually miss tourist maps. Nothing special onset, but I had a pleasant surprise when I visited one of them. I pointed at a chain of three temples, including Embekka temple, driver Lalu said that he could not take me there, as it was out of itinerary. I called up the tourist operator, who asked me to pay 50 US dollar more for adding up another destination.
When we went to the temple, I was disappointed. In the first place, we were charged entry fee, without informing us that the temple was closed and would open only after five hours. It was just like tiled roof supported by wooden pillars. When we went inside, there was Karthikeya banner covering the closed door. Next door was a small Buddha shrine.
As we came out of the Buddha shrine, we noticed some small carvings on the pillars that supported the roof. There was carving of wrestling and later, two peacocks locking their necks. Next two carvings baffled me. First was of a Lion, resembling Hoysala dynasty symbol. But, man fighting the Lion was absent. The next one was Ganda Bherunda, the twin headed bird and symbol of Mysore Wodeyars.
While getting out, I tried to collect history of the temple. The temple was built in 14th or 15th century by Gampola kings. Since it was a small temple, no one exactly had idea about either Lion or Ganda Bherunda bird sign. Just left me with more questions than answers…..

LANKAN DIARY - 2

DROUGHT AND ELEPHANTS

Holding sketchy itinerary in hand, I was just trying to figure out the alternative sightseeing for the day. Though Sigiriya was on the list, I could not expect the three senior citizens, who have crossed 70, to climb 600 plus meter rock with me.
Though the itinerary mentioned about Habarana, no detail was available. All it said was that we had to pay for entry of Sigirya rock and wildlife safari. I just asked driver Lalu about Habarana and he just said you can see elephants. I mistook it for Pinnawala elephant orphanage and all four of us are against such centers.
Chinnappa had already told me that they would like to see Sigirya rock from outside, but would not climb it. Nor Radha aunty and Prasad were interested in it. That left us with Rangiri cave temple, known as Dambulla cave temple for the day.
At Sigiriya, Lalu was of little help to take us near the rock. I realized that the entry fee was from the main road itself and we could not have proper view of the rock from main gate. It would have been waste of Rs 3000 per head (Sri Lanka currency), if we went closer. We just took a look at the rock from a distance.
I again asked Lalu about Habarana. He told me that it was not elephant orphanage, but a wildlife sanctuary with a lot of elephants. This enthused other three also and we decided to take a shot in daytime itself.
Though Lalu offered to look for a safari jeep, I walked into a nearby resort and fixed it by myself. The driver was young and looked dynamic. I learned that we were visiting Minneriya National Park, which had large congregation of elephants. It was almost an hour drive from Sigiriya and later I realized that we could have gone to Habarana and rented a safari jeep from there. Lalu saved that much of fuel for himself.
On the way, we were discussing about variety of issues. A keen observer, Chinnappa had noticed insulated power lines being drawn near Sigiriya and inquired technical details with Prasad, an engineer and once owned electrical components manufacturing units. The discussion also turned towards solar fencing to prevent elephants, which was done in a much better manner in Sri Lanka, compared to India by forest department.
I was noticing large tracts of lush green open lands and wondered if they were part of any marsh land. Chinnappa had already noticed that and made inquires about it in my absence. ``Like Karnataka, even Sri Lanka is reeling under drought. These are all paddy lands and the people have not cultivated paddy for last two years,’’ he said.
Sri Lanka witness dry season between June and September. We could see mango trees either flowering or bearing fruits. There seems to be some early rain in recent past, which had turned land green. After some distance, I realized that the large land by the side of the road could be a dry lake. A potential conflict zone with such large number of elephants, I thought.
Minneriya is similar to Kabini and Periyar is India. It is adjacent to backwaters of Minneriya reservoir build by local king Mahasena in 3rd century. There is a lot of backwater and fresh grass grows in the backwater area, where elephants graze. Due to rain failure, the extent of backwater had receded, creating a large tract of grassland. During British era, two railway lanes were drawn in heavily wooded area, fragmenting the habitat.
As we entered the park, first 20 minutes had thick vegetation, with undergrowth. Slowly we emerged to large grassland and there stood an elephant, just 100 meters from us. It was a male and to our right, at far end, another single elephant was grazing. We passed by the first one and drove more than two kilometers to reach the second one. That was also male.
``This is also macana (male without tusks),’’ I said.
``In Sri Lanka, there are no tuskers. Most of the males are macanas,’’ he said. First I thought that it was either genetical disorder. But, it was during Tamil Ealam movement that the elephants suffered a lot. Elephant tusks were one of the resource mobilization ways of LTTE. Most of the tuskers were poached and the tusks were sold in international market to raise funds. This left the country with tusk less elephants.
The day was hot and the sun was really bright. We were happy about seeing two wild elephants in Sri Lanka. We thought that we were early in the day to see elephants and they would not come out of shade in such humid conditions. However, Chinnappa asked the driver to take near backwater, which we could not see from the place where we were driving.
After ten minutes of drive, the jeep took a slight left turn, which opened to back water sight. ``Wow,’’ exclaimed I and Prasad simultaneously. There were at least 50 elephants, in five or six groups. I could see little ones in almost every group. Prasad has been visiting Kabini since 70’s and said that it was reminding him of those days. At the end, we had counted around 80 elephants.
Now, there were elephants all around us. I was not in hurry and I could turn any direction and take photos. Contrary to our belief, there were two small elephants, sporting tusks. However, their body growth was not proportionate to the tusk growth, which was disappointing. But, the experience of having elephants all around was great.
Though Minneriya had largest elephant congregation in one place, the problem in the fringes of the forest is similar to Indian one. There are two railway lanes passing inside the forest. In fringes, due to drought, farmers have given up water intensive cultivation. However, the elephants raid whatever vegetables and fruits they grow. This has increased man-elephant conflict. They also break solar fencing in some places to raid crops.
Despite of problems, I felt Sri Lanka forest department was doing much better work than our own forest department. They have not meddled with forests much and appear to be practicing good fire control methods. Consequently, the local species of plants are naturally fighting lantana menace all by themselves and not allowed them to take over as undergrowth. More importantly, the Sri Lankan forest officials have restrained themselves from taking up construction of culverts, storm water drains and other civil works inside wildlife area.

LANKAN DIARY-1

THE WHITE SKIN OBSESSION

``So… you are set to visit land of Ravana?’’ asked my friend ``He is my hero in Ramayana,’’ I just replied
``Why so?’’
``He kidnapped Seetha to avenge his sister’s humiliation. Though Seetha was beautiful and he had opportunities to do anything, he treated her with respect. He was such an ardent lover of Lord Shiva, that he dared to take Athma Linga from Shiva for his mother. How can I take a person as a hero, who distrusted his wife time and again, subjecting her to Agnipravesha and banishing her to forest just after hearing gossips?’’ I replied.
``I will tell you one more story. Rama was looking for a learned scholar to give `Diksha’ for war. Learning that, Ravan himself offered him `Diksha’ and blessed Rama with victory,’’ he said.
``That makes him nobler,’’ I just laughed.
``Remember, you may not meet many Ravana’s in present Lanka,’’ he laughed.
In my second visit to Sri Lanka, I was accompanying my wildlife Guru K M Chinnappa, his wife Radha aunty and friend HNA Prasad. I am youngest in the group and took responsibility of organizing the trip. As we landed in Colombo at 4.30 am, I was mostly dependent on the cab driver Lalu, who picked us up. Since we added Wilpattu wildlife sanctuary in the last minute, we started driving directly, without even freshening up.
Though Lalu said it was five hours drive, even with a breakfast stop, we had reached Wilpattu at 10.30 am. Lalu got into action and booked a vehicle for taking us inside the forests. I just told Lalu and the vehicle driver that it was wrong time to go for wildlife safari, as animals would be resting. When both tried convincing that there was no such thing as time for safari, I realized I had a tough task during rest of the tour. Just booking through tourist operators does not lessen your burden of managing things, if your tour has to go according to your plan.
I told Lalu that we would start for safari only by 2.30 pm, so that we could try and sight some animals. Both Lalu and another driver tried to give some lecture on animal behavior to me. With a smile I told him that I would be taking a room at Leopard Den resort, just opposite to the place where we were talking and rest till lunch. The safari would start after the lunch.
As I walked into the resort office, I noticed it was basic, but very nicely done. Owner cum manger was a lady, who agreed to give us a room for couple of hours. I told her that we would also have lunch at around 1.30 pm and went to room.
As we four walked into dining area at 1.30 pm, couple of tourist vehicles also arrived. Almost all the guests were white people. We placed our orders before them and began discussing about Wilpattu wildlife sanctuary. It is one of the largest protected areas for leopards in Sri Lanka. Leopards are persecuted so much in Sri Lanka that it is endangered.
I just asked Chinnappa as to why there were no tigers in Sri Lanka and laughed that how Sri Lanka has Lion on its National flag, though there were no Lions in that country.
Chinnappa explained me how tigers migrated from Siberia to other regions in the Asia and by the time it could reach Sri Lanka, the sea had separated two countries. That was much before history and during process of evolution and migration of species period.
Half an hour passed and the hotel people had supplied food to everyone in the dining area, except us. No one even took notice of our presence and we could not even draw attention of anyone in the hotel. First, we thought our dishes were getting late and after another 15 minutes, the hotel people started collecting bills from the customers. I called the waiter who took our order and asked about our food. He went inside and was followed by another person. He plainly said that fish was over and if we wanted, he could prepare some chicken.
By then, Prasad had lost his cool and went to the office. He confronted the owner woman and wanted to know what was happening and demanded explanation for not supplying food for over an hour. She just said that there was some delay and would try and do something about it. The laxity made me lose my cool also and just shot at her: ``Look madam, I thought only Indians had this obsession for white skin people. I was wrong and it is universal in Asia and Africa. You should remember that I have given you bigger business than them. This is not done.’’
The lady was taken aback and hurried into the kitchen. Next 15 minutes, our food was on our table. Even Chinnappa and Radha aunty had lost their cool. We ate without a word, paid the bill and left the place.
In the safari, we realized that our guide had scant knowledge about forest. However, he was confidently explaining us about the forest, which beat the logics of even Chinnappa’s five decades of experience with forest and wildlife. Every time he opened his mouth, we smiled at each other. Chinnappa pointed at some animal foot mark and wanted to know to which animal it belonged to. The driver, without hesitation said it belonged to spotted deer, when we burst into laughter. Chinnappa pointed out that it was round and large…. Almost looked like camel hooves mark. The driver thought for a while and said it might be of wild buffalos.
Though we were surprised at that moment, later we sighted a herd of wild buffalos near a water hole. It is same as our domestic buffalos, but live in wild throughout in herds life Indian Gaur and African Buffalos.
Our discussion was mainly around how preventing forest fire has helped the local species of plants to fight Lantana destroying them. It was more technical and comparison with our forests in Karnataka. Though we could not sight leopard, we had good sightings of red mongoose, monitor lizard and star tortoise.
When we returned to the resort to pick our vehicle, the owner was enthusiastically showing her bird collection to the tourists and answering their queries about the place. She avoided eye contact with us, but we did not feel bad about it. In the late evening, we had a long journey to reach Dambulla…. Our next destination.