COLOMBO, Feb 16 - Sri Lanka is replacing some of its traditional rubberplantations with oil palm in a controversial move that first drewcriticism from the rubber industry and is now drawing the ire ofenvironmentalists.

While the rubber industry, though conceding that rubber has fallen fromgrace as an economical crop, points out the many advantages of the rubbertree including the prevention of soil erosion, environmentalists arelisting more dangers like sapping of water resources and use of killerpesticides.

"The loss of biodiversity and the seepage of factory effluents are justsome of the bad effects from oil palms," says Hemantha Withanage,executive director of the Environmental Foundation Ltd (EFL), thecountry's top environment watchdog.

The issue turned violent in October last year when residents backed bylocal politicians in the southern district of Galle attacked oil palmnurseries and assaulted an elderly Malaysian consultant, Hasan Aziz binMohamed.

An unidentified gang stormed the estate bungalow of the 62-year oldconsultant working for Watawala Plantations Ltd at Nakiadeniya in theGalle district and beat up the victim.

He suffered injuries in the eyes and the back and after a few weeks at aColombo hospital flew back to Kuala Lumpur, vowing not to return.

"They warned him - go back, no oil palms," Vish Govindasamy, managingdirector at Watawala Plantations in which India's multinational Tata Grouphas a US$4 million investment, recalled.

No one has been arrested over the attack and the Planters Association,representing Watawala and two other companies involved in oil palms, hasspoken of political interference and indifference by the police andgovernment authorities in dealing with the problem. Tata halted furtherinvestments in the Watawala project.

The crisis had blown up a year before the attack when villagers complainedthat the Watawala's 2,000 hectare plantation was draining water resourcesand responsible for a drought. A team of experts from the PlantationsMinistry did an environmental impact study and found there was little orno impact on the environment.

Govindasamy said his company believed that the issue was more to do withland grabbing than environment, with frequent encroachment by villages atthe Watawala plantations.

"The encroachment problem is a big headache. We have already given 300hectares to the state," he said in a recent interview.

In January, Rubber Research Director Dr L.M.K. Tillekeratne raisedconcerns over replacing rubber with oil palms saying rubber was a muchmore valuable crop that oil palms and that Sri Lanka should be cautious inproceeding with this experiment.

"Rubber is more versatile and has greater potential for value additionthan oil palm," he said in a statement, stressing that rubber providedforest cover and helped protect forest reserves as well as provide timberfor furniture.

He said there was no use of the trunk and branches of oil palm unlikerubber.

The remarks drew fire from Malaysia where experts dismissed thesuggestions saying that oil palms in Malaysia had been an enormous successwith rubber gradually being replaced with oil palm.

Tillekeratne subsequently said the comments were made in the Sri Lankacontext only and not for international consumption. Newspapers in recentweeks have been carrying comments and letters reflecting pro and anti-oilpalm comments.

Rubber production and prices have been falling sharply in Sri Lanka overthe years due to a combination of state rubber land being acquired forother development purposes and world market prices falling.

Rubber acreage has been shrinking rapidly in the past 25 years. Along withtea and coconut, rubber has been Sri Lanka's main export crop for morethan a century.

Last week the Sri Lanka Green Movement expressed concern over the issuesaying oil palms would destroy the country's green cover and make the soilinfertile.

"Large extents of land have been brought under oil palm cultivation in thehill and mid country and such land has become infertile with rivers andsprings drying up," the environment group said in a statement.

Among the dangers it said were the increase in 30 kinds of insects whichrequire the use of insect repellents and the spread of bacterial germswhich also require the use of anti-bacterial substances.

In the Galle district, Parisara Mithuro (Friends of the Environment)movement says there is evidence to show that oil palms has ruined theenvironment.

"We have seen wells dry up. We have witnessed the slow death of bird andanimal species like dogs, pigs and crows," noted Sena Kalehiwatte, thegroup's founder who led the campaign against Watawala Plantations.

"There are no longer any crows here. The skins of dogs and pigs havebecome infested with sores due to the effects of the oil palm," he wasquoted as saying in the February 10 issue of the Sunday Observer.

A journalist from the newspaper who toured the Galle region and areaswhere oil palms are planted said was no evidence to support this claim.

EFL's Withanage however said oil palm is a cultivation that absorbs a lotof water and a high level of pesticides must be used. "This leads tocontamination of water, soil and the killing of insects such asbutterflies."

He said since little local research has been done on the subject, EFL iscurrently translating a 56-page research document by the World RainforestMovement on oil palms into local languages for the benefit ofenvironmentalists.

Withanage also said oil palm was being promoted by western countries,mainly the US, in a bid to promote vegetable oils over coconut oil whichis commonly used in local cooking. "This may be another attempt to weanpeople away from coconut," he said.

There is a growing debate in Sri Lanka between the coconut industry andthe medical profession, which argues that there is a greater risk of heartproblems from coconut oil than vegetable oils.

The coconut industry accuses the medical profession of also beinginfluenced by the pro-vegetable oils lobby.--Bernama