We drove under a green canopy, and pulled up outside the beautiful, old fashioned but modest-looking estate bungalow. Maintained adequately but having seen better days, the house, and the pictures longed to tell the stories of years gone by. We were on the estate which belonged to the Jayewardene family, and once upon a time, former President J.R. Jayewardene was the commander-in-chief of the location. Madam Elina Jayewardene had the luck of the draw during the subdivision of the larger estate Kumbaloluwa among the family, to end up with the block which included this house. Subsequently, President Jayewardene had also acquired parts of the family properly around it, and the combined location now extended over 57 Acres. On behalf of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society’s PLANT initiative, we were there at the invitation of the location’s current owner, his grandson, Pradip Jayewardene. 
Three years ago, the WNPS set up a not-for-profit company Preserving Land and Nature (Guarantee) Ltd, or PLANT for short, with the ambitious goal of setting up private conservation areas and building forest corridors (see www.plantsl.org). The project met with a very good response, and information about our initiative had reached Pradip, who himself is an ardent fan of having far great foliage coverage even in city areas. In fact, many trees growing within Colombo City were planted through his past interventions. President Jayewardene who was a Past Patron of the WNPS, was also a great lover of nature.
Under his leadership, several wildlife conservation initiatives were launched. Among them - and very special to the WNPS- was stopping commercial logging in rain forests such as the Sinharaja Forest Reserve which was thereafter designated a World Biosphere Reserve. The WNPS had been leading a coalition of partners for years and canvassing to stop this tragedy up until that point. Pradip engaged PLANT in a discussion, and we developed a plan to build a small forest corridor around the existing estate, which largely comprised of Coconut trees. Soon, an M.O.U was signed, and we kicked things off.
Although the Mirigama area is still fairly green, it is largely agricultural and under immense development pressure. The WNPS has seen many such areas being destroyed in less than a decade and we now attempt to intervene at the earliest possible stage to prevent this. Building narrow passages for animal movements, between large properties and along waterways, is one of the best hopes of keeping more wildlife intact in such areas. Our objective was to map and demarcate the future corridor along the perimeter, but first we took time to wander around the premises.
Several pictures of President Jayewardene during his childhood, with his parents and family and a few during his presidential period, still adorn the walls and antique furniture tops. Imagining him sitting at the large old desk was sublime, but for me, his true shadow on this location emerged as we moved into our fieldwork. 
Having examined the extended map of the locality, we plotted out a rough plan and then began doing our physical inspection. As we moved through the waterways, and along the tree lines, Pradip pointed to many different trees and related stories of how his grandfather had planted them.
A tall and unusual tree rose above the roofline which was totally out of character, and it caught my eye. Pradip responded that J.R. had brought that Date Palm back from his visit to attend the UNCTAD conference in 1967 in Algeria, and had it planted here. These little glimpses into the past through nature made both the historic and sentimental value of the land more pronounced. lthough cultivated, the land has a few small waterways and broad small rock outcrops, where we discovered proof of the presence of porcupines, interesting amphibians, birds, and many other species. In some segments, to retain unbroken connectivity of forest cover, Pradip agreed to let us take back narrow strips of his Coconut land, so that the forest passage could continue. Cleary the love for nature had come strongly down the line. His brother Rukshan Jayewardene too has contributed strongly to the conservation field including as a past President of the WNPS.
Over the next few tough and sweaty hours, our naturalist duo, Diluksha and Madushanka, busily and expertly identified the right boundary locations, kept making notes of the foliage and animal species we were observing, and engaged in insightful discussions with Pradip as we marked out the outer lines within which the new trees would be planted. The corridor would be over 3 kilometers in length. Pradip’s vision of a more holistic approach to his land and cultivation meant that we would be adopting a coexistence model. But his Manager, Mohotti, was quick to share that they hardly had issues with giant squirrels and the likes, mainly since there were enough fruits and other food for these species in the trees around. If more land and plantation owners understood this philosophy of give and take, they would certainly discover that this would be more economical as opposed to the high cost for exploring preventive options for wildlife. 
The teams have commenced work, and a few thousand new trees will be planted to complement existing ones. These will be carefully selected to fit the terrain, and also provide fruits and other ecosystem services specific to the land and its species. Our past experience suggests that in 3-4 years we will have a reasonable tree passage taking shape. If Sri Lankans were to adopt a wiser approach to land use, PLANT believes that we could move the Leopard, Monkey or Elephant Conflicts to far better Coexistence models. We hope we can convince landowners and decision makers of this philosophy, one property at a time. In the same vein that President Jayawardena famously quoted Lord Buddha’s teaching ‘Hatred ceases not by hatred but by love’, maybe it is time to extend that love to all species who walk this wonderous planet. His ancestral property is certainly starting to reflect this. 
-
Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne,
Chairman, WNPS PLANT
