More about Rubber

Rubber Leaves

The botanical name of the Para rubber tree is Hevea brasiliensis. The  tree belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. This tree is an important member of the genus Hevea. It is of major economic importance because its sap-like extract (known as latex) can be collected and is the primary source of natural rubber.

Rubber Fruit

Rubber Seeds

Rubber tree is native to Brazil, and found only in the Amazon Rainforest. Increasing demand for rubber and the discovery of the vulcanization procedure in 1839 led to a boom in that region, enriching the cities of Manaus and Belém. An attempt was made in 1873, to grow rubber outside Brazil. Seeds were exported from the lower Amazon area of Brazil to London UK by Henry Wickham, a local planter acting for the British Government. After some effort, twelve seedlings were germinated at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England. Once established outside its native country, rubber was extensively propagated in the British colonies.

The rubber tree was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1875. The first rubber tree was planted in Henarathgoda Botanic Garden of Gampaha district in 1876, but the tree was uprooted by a cyclone in 1988.  Efforts to cultivate the tree in its native South America were unsuccessful. Today most rubber plantations are found in Southeast Asia particularly in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

The Road: Our Frustration

I am frustrated!

It was so hard to arrange a vehicle to transport material to the building site. Last week, I hired a tractor to transport one cubic meter of river sand and 15 bags of cement . He took three turns to transport sand just one kilometer distance to the site. He demanded Rs 1750 per turn, which is quite unfair. When I think back, all the trucks and tractors we have hired so far have charged us excessively. They all say that the road is so bad that they have to charge a big fee to transport material to the site.

Heavily Washed Off Section of the Road

Yes, the road is bad only about 300m, the other section is carpeted or flat land where road is not damaged. How I hate to know that out of desperation, I had to pay a higher fee for transportation!

Rock Paved Section of the Road

I am determined to put the stop to this malpractice. The three wheeler (tuk tuk) drivers are the same. Last week, my mom, son and I wanted to hire a three wheeler to go to the Estate. There were nearly ten three wheelers in the park, but they said that they were not willing to go up. One guy agreed, but all three of us had to walk along the road, beside the three wheeler, which went up only with our bags.  I had to pay Rs 300 just for the empty three wheeler that went up.

Concreted Section of the Road

 I have a feeling that the three wheel drivers and truck owners in the area have ganged up altogether to raise the fee, citing the bad condition of the road as the reason for higher charges. They have created a monopolistic situation out of the misery that the villagers face due to the bad condition of the road. A lot of villagers cannot afford to repair or build their houses due to the difficulties of transporting construction material. I am thinking hard to find a way to get the road repaired. Perhaps I need to approach politicians to urge them to repair the road.

Roads: Prerequisit for the Rural Development

Have you ever thought how important roads are to take development to the remote areas? Until you get the first hand experience in a remote hilly region, you won't understand how important roads are for the day to day lives of villagers in those remote areas. You got to carry everything (from food to construction material) miles and miles until you are breathless and collapsed due to tiredness. Even you are sick, there is no other way to come down other than walking to look for medical help. I don't know how villagers handle medical emergencies in these areas. It gives me a shiver to think how fatal it could be for a pregnent mother to go to labour in the middle of the night. Perhaps the villagers are used to the above circumstance and adapting the local methods to cope up the situation.

Roads are an essential infrastructure to bring the development to the remote regions. The Government of Sri Lanka is all going out to develop its road network. Although some people criticize the government action I am fully supportive knowing how essential it is for the lives of masses. Besides, how could I work in the same field if I don't see how important the roads are to the community?

When I came back to Sri Lanka after ten long years in New Zealand, what I witnessed was a horrible condition of the road network. It was shocking to see how bad the roads were with huge potholes and clogged side drains. Although there is an influx of cars in recent times the road network has not been widened and improved to accommodate more vehicles.

Dehiowita Pradeshiya Sabha area is the second largest Pradeshiya Sabha area in the country. While the trunk roads have been improved, the local road network is not yet developed, particularly in the hilly areas. Unfortunately our rubber estate is situated in one of those remote areas. As nearly a kilometer distance to the road is not motorable, due to the bad condition of the road, it costs us a fortune to transport building material to the site. Finding a suitable vehicle that can travel along the hilly and raggedy road is a daunting task. Each time when we hire a vehicle, we are to keep few people standby in case the vehicle needs a support for pushing upward. This makes the construction work difficult. I wonder how the villagers carried bags of cement and other heavy construction material to higher elevations to build their houses! I feel the remoteness and rural character are still preserved as the area is not motorable. When we looked for the rubber lands, we found that the land prices were quite low due to this reason.

Concreted Section of the Raod

The villages said that they had only a footpath a few years ago. Now they have a 15 ft wide road which has been paved halfway through. Despite all these difficulties, the villagers are happy of what they have already got. What I heard is the villagers collectively improved their road by paving it. It needs more support for these people. Although the labour is available, they need material support to build the rest of the road. The politicians come and go, new administrations are set up in local governments with newly appointed politicians, but the problems of the villages are still unsolved…

Monsoon Rains...

Sky is dark,
Heavy with the clouds...
It's going to rain soon,
I have no doubts...

Rustling and bustling
the leaves in the air ...
Wind is howling
Swinging the trees
from here to there...

Darker the evening
And Colder the air...
Rain lashed out
With lightning and thunder!
Making me scare...

Building Our Future Home

Our land is quite far from Colombo to drive daily. It is around 50km away from where we living in Colombo. There are two routes that we can take. The Low level Road via Kaduwela and Hunwella is the shorter route which is around 47km. The road is quite narrow, but takes a long time to go due to slow moving traffic. The High Level road is the longer route which is around 55km to the land. The road is wide and carpeted and traffic moves smoothly. I love to drive in this route. The story does not end from there.

The Debegama - Napawala Road is not motorable. We have to walk along this hilly road nearly one kilometer. The villagers have concreted half of of the road with the help of the local authority. But still, nearly a 500m long section of the road is left which is not motorable. Due to the absence of side drains, rain water flows along the muddy road surfacing rocks and forming ridges in the middle. Walking along this difficult road is a daunting task. We have to walk 200m more along our private road to go to the Estate. The 12ft wide private road is ours and it was previously used to transport rocks from the quarry operated in our Estate.

Building a house was not in our plans. We first thought of renting out a house nearby. But the old house that we found was infested with various kinds of insects including few types of ants. I am afraid to keep my five year old son, Ewan; in the insects infested, muddy, cold and soggy old house. We really don't want to sleep on the bare floor and walk in the wet and muddy floor after hard works of a long day. My mom complains all the time about ants and rat infested kitchen that has a leaky roof. After thinking hard, I decided to build a house for us.

First we thought of using the half built concrete structure to form a one bedroom house with bare minimum facilities. But we found that the old structure was in ruin. We want our house to be cozy, warm and comfortable place for us to live. At the end, the plan for the one bedroom cottage house was changed to a three roomed cottage.

Old half- built Concrete Structure

I went to the Estate yesterday with my sister, brother and cousin brother to start building the new house. Here in Sri Lanka, people are very superstitious when it comes to building houses. They believe the effect of planetary positions on you and your house. The magnetic and electric energy patterns in plant earth will be influenced by the other planetary positions. In order to absorb positive energies from universe, the shape of your house and its directions are important concerns.  In order to draw positive energy from the universe, you need to draw the right design which is specific to one's birth chart and needs to have an entrance to the right direction. A house is started to build at a positive time (auspicious time) after performing religious activities. We didn't want to deviate from this common, well established practice. Yesterday, on 27th of April 2011 at 9.11am, we started building our house ceremoniously. Here are some photos of yesterday's ceremony.

The Builder Performing Rituals at the Building Site

Place Dedicated to Deities

Offering to Deities

Helpers Cutting the Foundation

Removing the Trees from Building Site

Providing Basic Facilities for Workers

The rubber trees of our Estate was tapped for last five years. The quarry was also in operation until last year. I wonder how people worked there without basic sanitary facilities.

The mud hut is in a delapidated condition where it needs repairs immediately. The roof is leaky in many places, the timbers in the main frame are rot, the clay walls are full of holes and the floor is uneven and covered with dust. I am in a hurry to cover holes in the walls, make the floor flat and repair the roof before workers come for work.

The biggest issue is the absence of facilites. The toilet is now under construction. As the weather is quite bad with heavy rians during the afternoons, I don't know how long it would take to complete the constuction work.

There is another half built concrete structure that we need to repair. I have got a plan prepared for a two roomed house.  The construction work starts at an auspicious time on 27th April. Hope everything goes well in the Estate as planned.

Running the Estate at a High Risk

We could not still resolve the problems with tappers. The working family who promised to work in the Estate did not tern up on the Sunday morning. I am so frastrated and helpless, but keep on looking for people.

The decendants of the Indian Tamils who were brought to Sri Lanka to work in the plantation estates are the professional tappers in the big plantation estates. They are being provided housing and a daily wage of Rs. 410.00 (US $ 4.00) for tapping for a day. Because of heavy rains duirng the months of April and May, the income for workers in rubber plantations drastically dropps. But, in addition to tapping, the estates make sure that they are getting a resonable monthly income through manual work such as weeding .

The estate houses are overcrowded with extended family members. The younger generations of the estate workers often look for nontraditional work outside the estates mostly in service sector. Some of them are unhappy members of extended families who look for work at a higher wages. The family that we were looking for belongs to this catagory. Despite of our promises of providing better housing and high wages, they let us down. I think the main reason is my waring agaist the alcoholism. Most of men in the estate families are adicted to alcohol. No matter where they live, the want to drink locally distilled licqure every evening. With this bitter lesson of experience, now I understand that finding non-alcoholic workers is not possible in Sri Lanka.

It rains heavily everyday. Even tappers are brought, they won't be able to tap the rubber trees during this period. The money I have at hand is draining out to improve workers' quaters and to provide the sanitary facilities before the arrival of workers.  I am very desperate with the prevailing weather and my inability to find tappers.