Abstract:
“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller
than the trees” said Henry Thoreall. Now a day what is
happening is the opposite of this quote. People do take
walks in the woods, but they never become taller than the
trees because they chop down the trees before the walk
come to an end. In Sri Lanka the situation is the same. This
research aims to assess the adverse impact of Wilpattu
Deforestation and Illegal Resettlement Projects. Wipattu,
the largest Forest reserve in Sri Lanka is well known for the
flourishing eco-system that prevails there. An ample extent
of Wilpattu now has been deforested with the purpose of
providing shelters to the internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Due to these irresponsible human actions, the Wilpattu
National park and the animal species in it have become the
victims of this increasing threat. At the same time the
question arises is that whether these housing projects are
permitted or not by the relevant authorities and though it
clearly seems to be illegal, why the actions have not been
taken yet to prevent this? This seems to be a clear violation
of Environmental Law in Sri Lanka. The main objective of
this research is to identify the rules and regulations that
are violated in this issue and also to identify the remedies
for that. When seeking solutions for this issue it was clearly
visible that the responsibility of protecting Wilpattu
belongs to both the relevant authorities and every
individual in Sri Lanka. This research has used a
quantitative data analysis with the sources like journals,
text books, law reports, articles.
