One man’s green paradise

a hundred different species His is one man’s effort to create n arboretum. There are over a hundred different species in the sloping one-acre plot of land and they are all trees, bushes and vines that he has over the years painstakingly gathered and grown, planted and nurtured with extraordinary devotion. Milla, Bovitia, Palu, Mora, Koon, Thimbiri, Himbutu, Maadan, Batakirilla, Batu Keena, Embilla, Meegonkarapincha - he knows them all and points them out with pride as he walks us through his garden.

Most of the trees now thriving here, their branches stretching skywards are natives of the Dry Zone, a region that Damitha loves, others from Sinharaja and remote parts of the island. He himself was born in Alawwa and raised in Kandy but his work has taken him travelling extensively and it is the Dry Zone that exerts a particular fascination for him. Struck by the changing vegetation of the different regions, he noticed the lack of appreciation for the wild fruit trees among many today, particularly urban dwellers, even though they may have enjoyed such fruits in their childhood. “I felt we were in danger of losing an integral part of our heritage,” he says.

The feeling grew that he should do something that would bring to a larger view the unique value of these wild fruit trees and medicinal plants not just from the perspective of highlighting traditional knowledge but also because they can be of use in our modern world. “Wherever I went, I would ask the villagers ‘What are the trees that bear fruit?’ The second question was whether we could eat it or birds could eat it. Often the next time I was there, they would have a sight plant for me.”