Conservation of the Central Hills

The central hills of Sri Lanka are more than a scenic backdrop to our country’s landscape. They are its heart and lungs, regulating climate, storing water, nurturing biodiversity, and sustaining millions of lives downstream. Yet for over two centuries, these hills have been abused, misused, and systematically degraded. Today, as floods, landslides, and water scarcity become alarmingly frequent, the central hills stand as a stark reminder that the country can no longer afford short-term thinking. It is time to fundamentally rethink how we conserve and restore this vital region.

For millions of years, the  central hills were cloaked in primordial rainforests, complex, ancient ecosystems shaped by time, isolation, and evolution. These forests were among the richest in genetic diversity anywhere on Earth. That legacy was violently disrupted during the British colonial period, when vast tracts of untouched rainforest were cleared to make way for coffee plantations, and later tea. In the process, billions upon billions of dollars’ worth of genetic wealth, plants, animals, microorganisms, many of them endemic, were destroyed forever. This loss is not merely historical. It continued well after independence to this day. Successive governments have failed to identify the value of the Central hills and come up with a programme to restore and preserve its enormous wealth.

What remains are tiny fragments of these once-continuous rainforests, specks on a map, but treasures in reality. Each square metre of these forests reveals endemic plants and animals, some known only to science, others still waiting to be discovered. Some of these endemic plants carry nature’s cures to disease, harnessed correctly through research and pharmaceutical development with enormous monetary potential.

Decades of plantation agriculture have left deep scars on the central hills. Intensive cultivation has stripped the soil of its fertility, leaving behind grasslands and wastelands once the land can no longer sustain crops. Erosion is rampant, and the fragile mountain soils, never meant to be exposed, are washed away with every heavy rain. The water cycle, once carefully regulated by dense forest cover, has been profoundly altered. Streams that once flowed steadily throughout the year now swing between destructive floods and dry-season scarcity.

The recent floods and landslides in the hill country are not isolated disasters but symptoms of a system pushed beyond its limits. They demonstrate the extreme vulnerability of the central hills and, by extension, the vulnerability of the entire country that depends on them. Ignoring these warning signs would be reckless.

We urgently need a long-term, science-based plan to restore and protect its central hills. The Government must take bold steps toward large-scale reforestation with native species, prioritising the reconnection of fragmented rainforests. Destructive pine plantations, which acidify soils and support little biodiversity, should be gradually removed and replaced with indigenous forest cover. The environmental impact of plantation industries must be reduced through stricter regulation, sustainable practices, and the restoration of degraded lands.

Crucially, human activity above certain elevations must be limited. These high-altitude zones are ecologically sensitive and vital for water security. Population pressure and infrastructure development in these areas should be reduced, and communities gradually encouraged to move away from the most vulnerable zones. Allowing these landscapes the space and time to rejuvenate is not anti-development but essential for long-term national survival.

The central hills have given Sri Lanka life for millennia. The least we can do now is give them a chance to recover.