ENVIRONMENT-SRI LANKA: Eco-tourism Flourishes in Sri Lanka

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

BANDARAWELA, Sri Lanka, Aug 21 1998 (IPS) - Despite the tears welling up in their eyes, they cheerful peel the onions, dabble with red chilly powder and toss the salad.

These are not poor women struggling in a dreary kitchen but dollar-spending, foreign tourists learning first-hand the culinary and other delights of Sri Lanka.

This is the new age of eco-tourism, a growing industry in which tourists prefer to learn about the customs, food habits, culture, environment and history of countries they visit rather. than laze on the beach or spend time in curio shops or gape at beauty spots.

At the Woodlands Network in the hill station of Bandarawela, about 180 kms from Colombo, this is exactly what tourists get and they are delighted.

A group of 20 young Germans, among them students, doctors and engineers, are learning to cook a simple Sri Lankan rice and curry meal, at “Student House,” a small hotel run by Woodlands.

Sarojini Ellawela, manager of Woodlands Network, has laid out the vegetables, spices and other ingredients necessary to prepare a meal of rice with dhal (lentils), potato and fish curry.

The young Germans cook with gusto in the main dining hall of Student House with Ellawela keeping an eye on the proceeding.

After the group has eaten the meal they have cooked and is then taken to a small tea estate owned by a Sri Lankan villager and then goes on a four-five km walk to a jungle hermitage run by a reclusive Buddhist monk.

It is all part of the Woodlands Network’s promotion of nature tourism, the country’s culture and dozens of off-the-beaten track places in Sri Lanka.

Much of this effort comes from Harry Haas, a Roman Catholic priest from Holland who decided to make Sri Lanka his home in 1983 – ironically at a time when Sri Lankan Tamils were fleeing the country and tourists were reluctant to visit after widespread riots against Tamils by majority Sinhalese mobs.

Haas, a lover of nature and with an abiding interest in tourism, settled in Bandarawela and started a spices factory but later turned to his pet love, nature and tourism, to promote the mountainous town known as a health resort because of its fresh air, chilly winds and naturally-landscaped hills.

The 73-year old Dutchman, now a retired priest who says the state pension that he gets from Holland is more than enough for him, has taken upon himself the task of promoting Bandarawela.

He calls Bandarawela and surrounding towns like Haputale, Ella, Welimada and Diyatalawa the health triangle and wants to put it on the world tourism map.

With the help of the all-woman Woodlands Network which he founded in 1993, Haas has succeede in getting many individual foreign travellers andtourist groups visiting their offices in Bandarawela and using their services.

“There is great potential in this place. Unfortunately much of the tourism to Sri Lanka is mass tourism and places like Bandarawela are ignored,” says Haas pausing to greet a group of German tourists.

Haas gives them a 30-minute briefing in German about the natural beauty of Bandarawela and places to visit like tea estates and small waterfalls.

“The places we show are all off-the beaten track and hitherto unvisited. This is the beauty of this country. It’s natural environment, its people, the culture. That’s what foreign visitors like to see.”

The Woodlands effort has won international awards in the promotion of nature tourism and drew accolades at a recent conference in Colombo where hoteliers, environmentalists and government planners met to chart a long-term plan to promote eco- tourism as a sustainable alternative for growth.

The tiny island, some 65,000 sq-kms in area, packs a magnificent diversity — cultural, climatic and environmental — linked by a long and well-preserved history. For centuries, travellers like the Chinese Fa Hsien have written of the beauty of this ancient land.

And that’s what Haas and other environmentalists believe should be promoted – Sri Lanka’s people, its culture and diversity.

Woodlands attracts between six to eight 20-member groups of

German tourists each year and many single walk-in tourists who are provided with accommodation and food at a nominal fee and day-long programmes, including a long list of “walks, hikes and treks.”

“Some guests are on long-stays and are in Bandarawela for periods of three months and over,” said Ellawela, a former trade unionist who joined Woodlands at the inception.

She said that the six women who comprise Woodlands, along with Haas who now works as a volunteer consultant to allow the women freedom to run the organisation, are involved in tourism, catering, running the ‘House’ and computer services.

Gnana Dissanayake, a woman from a nearby village, joined Haas in 1992 and was trained by a visiting German student in computers and the e-mail. “We were one of the few institutions to offer an e-mail facility in Sri Lanka in 1992,”Dissanayake says proudly.

Woodlands income of about 40,000 rupees per month (much of which goes to pay salaries to its members) comes from computer services, catering, hotel services and handling charges – which is for picking up tourists at the airport and guiding them to their destination.

The German group’s local guide is Dimithri Silva, a Sri Lankan who works for a German agency called Studios. Silva, who speaks German fluently, having lived in Germany for 12 years, said that his company handles classical tours – for the over 45-years generation – and study groups for younger people.

“Both are popular packages and are a deviation from mass tourism,” he said adding that Studios organises upto eight tours a year to Sri Lanka.

Bandarawela and the Woodlands stop – which Silva says is an excellent way to promote people-to-people contact and show off cultural sites, environmental projects, traditional Buddhist pageant, and train rides through the mountains.

Visitors can chose to climb Adams Peak – Sri Lanka’s most sacred seven km-high mountain- which takes up most of a normal 14- day tour.

“There is a bit of insight in meeting people and visiting temples, mosques and churches and mingling with a mix of religions in such a small island,” says Silva who believes that Sri Lanka’s future lies in this type of tourism.