Kumbaloluwa Estate - Mirigama

FormerSri Lankan President, His ExcellencyJ.R. Jayewardene, partly inherited and partly acquired other blocks of their ancestral Kumbaloluwa Estate and would spend considerable time at this location. Even today, many pictures and artefacts around the bungalow within it, remind visitors of his connection with it. At the invitation of the location’s current owner, his grandson, Pradip Jayewardene, WNPS PLANT engaged with him through an MOU to develop a plan to build a perimeter forest corridor around the existing estate, which largely comprises of coconut and rubber trees at present.PLANTis grateful for his commitment and appreciates his interest in joining forces to protect the environment and the intent is to establish a coexistence model by creating a 3 kilometer forest corridor around the estate perimeter to preserve biodiversity by securing wildlife connectivity. This approach will guarantee the sustainability of the current agricultural practices by promoting co-existence.

President Jayewardene who was a Past Patron of the WNPS, was also a great lover of nature. Under his leadership, several wildlife conservation initiatives were launched. Among them-and very special to the WNPS-was stopping commercial logging in rain forests such as the Sinharaja Forest Reserve which was thereafter designated aWorld Biosphere Reserve.Today, his love for nature is evident through the many trees he planted on the estate, which provides a haven for a wide variety of wildlife. Continuing the legacy of the Jayawardene family as nature lovers, both Pradip and Rukshan, the grandsons of the former President, have contributed to the cause of conservation in numerous ways. Pradip also released small sections of the coconut estate to ensure that the passage had continuity. The PLANT team completed the measurement of the corridor, plotted their markers, and commenced the rewilding exercise. By June 2024, the baseline corridor had been established with over carefully selected young plants being inserted on the corridor.

The subsequent steps for this property will involve a comprehensive biodiversity assessment by the PLANT field team and their science team. By reviving sustainable practices, PLANT aims to make Kubaloluwa Estate an exemplary model of where agriculture works to coexist with conservation.