ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN SRI LANKA (A Sociological Analysis)

Abstract

Sri Lanka as a third world country carries out a number of development projects catering to the livelihood of people. Those development projects face a variety of ecological limitations due to their continuous counteraction to the increasing development crises. There have been many mass movements that emerged against the environmental crisis questioning the sustainability of certain development activities. Eppawala mass movement against privatization of phosphate mine, protest against the construction of Kandalama Hotel, the collective actions against Upper Kothmale Hydro Electricity Power Station and Nurochcholai mass activism against the planned coal power plant are some of the environmental movements that had a powerful impact on those development projects. The main aim of this study is to conduct an empirical sociological study on the Nurochcholai mass activism in order to understand the underlying social factors and forces in relation to environmental movements in Sri Lanka. The factors such as livelihood vulnerability, religious leadership and cultural identity were identified as the driving forces behind the Nurochcholai movement. The peasants at the grass roots level could be highly concerned about the life supporting nature of the ecological system than on purely ecological factors. The anticipated livelihood vulnerability due to the proposed coal power plant was the major factor that was instrumental for the forces to mobilize people to act on crowd sentiments against the coal power plant. Since the grass roots environmental actions in Nurochcholai almost entirely are based on livelihood vulnerability and not on romantic or ideological views of the environment, this study attempts to understand Nurochcholai within a new perspective of environmentalism that could be named "livelihood Environmentalism".