A sharp-eyed villager in Sri Lanka rediscovered an apparently extinct plant in the wild, and it was all thanks to a social media post.
According to Mongabay, the Pini-Beraliya was believed to have been lost to the wild back in 2012. Its existence was hanging by a thread as a single plant in a botanical garden in central Sri Lanka.
However, reports of the plant’s demise proved premature. A post by a Facebook group about the plant attracted the attention of Lasith Prageeth, a resident of Aygama, who replied, “We have this tree in our village.”
After a flurry of messages between Prageeth and the group’s administrator, field botanists visited the village to confirm the plant’s existence.
They left reasonably confident it was indeed the Pini-Beraliya, but just one piece of the puzzle was missing to put its identity beyond doubt: the flowers.
Almost a year later, Prageeth contacted the group to relay the exciting news and ascended the 50-foot tree personally to gather samples.
The plant’s status was upgraded to critically endangered, sparking local conservation efforts to revive its fortunes. One included a small rural school, whose student body helped plant saplings on the school’s grounds.
Amil Perera of Dilmah Conservation said: “The children were thrilled to learn that such a rare and important tree grows nearby.”
Sri Lanka has suffered more than most from deforestation. In the 1800s, the island had nearly 70% tree cover, but today it’s less than 30%, according to United Nations data shared by the Sierra Club.
A big part of that was the lengthy and brutal civil war. While it ended in 2009, the effects of it can still be felt today. Vast swathes of forests were lost in the fighting, and people and animals are injured every year by unexploded landmines, as Jamhoor observed.
As the nation recovers, there’s economic pressure to clear more forestland, and while there are strong laws against deforestation, they’re poorly enforced locally, per the Sierra Club.
The chance rediscovery of the Pini-Beraliya is a welcome piece of good news that shows the importance of staying up to date on global issues. It also highlights the vital role that residents can play in safeguarding the environment and helping to revive endangered species.
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