Wetlands in Colombo : a threatened landscape : destruction of wetlands in Colombi city and its periphery by dominating cityscape over natural landscape

Abstract

"... Oh! Great king the land belongs to people and all living beings thou art only the guardian of it the birds of the air, and the beasts have as equal right to live and move about in any part of the land as thou. The land belongs to people and all living beings. Thou art only the guardian of it......" -Mahawamsa – This was the Buddhist teaching and advice to the King or the trusteeship of the earth resources. This implies a great meaning in the sense of protection of environment, even today, its' importance is still being effective. The nature cares for all creatures, not only the human beings; all animals, birds, insects, reptiles, fish .... not only fauna, even for flora. Every creature is given its' own niche in nature without any discrimination. In return they never do any harm to destroy the nature. All these creatures, they live and obey the principles of Nature. They never emits effluents that are harm to the Nature. No any harm to its' context in order to change its' environment and characters, No any permanent structures, no excessive use of its' resources .... BUT all the harm is done to the nature ... by the human being who is considered as the brainy among all creatures that the Nature created. To fulfill personal needs and selfish lifestyle the creations of nature are being vanished by him There are a lot of incidents of such context. The one is the destruction of wetlands ..... The time for destruction is very short; their effects are irreversible, permanent bitter and harsh. Once we loss them we will miss them forever. The future generations of all beings may suffer the action of present generation of human beings...... !