Climate change and natural disasters

THE damage to the environment and the landscape particularly in the highlands of Sri Lanka are massive following Cyclone Ditwah.

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Some landmark areas have either been obliterated or left massively damaged due to flooding and landslides.The historic Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens, one of the most beloved places in the country, has suffered massive damage that those in charge of the botanical garden are unsure whether the plants in its nurseries will survive after floodwaters swept through the gardens. Among the damage is to the plants in the orchid nursery including those named in honour of foreign and local dignitaries while endemic plants too have either got destroyed or damaged.

The overall damage to the gardens is estimated at over Rs. 120 million but more than the monetary damage, its landscape too has been permanently damaged.

In other areas, the floods and landslides has also uprooted many fully grown tea plantations.

Greenpeace South Asia, the independent environmental campaigning network has concluded that human-induced climate change significantly intensified the extreme rainfall that struck Sri Lanka during the Cyclonic Ditwah.