Making of Rainforest Ecolodge

I was seconded to the Ecolodge project from the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce as the accountant to the project. Hemantha Rathnayake was the CEO of the project and Dhammika, Saliya, Laksman, Aruni & Azam was rest of the team. Project was headed by Mr. Prema Cooray as the chairman of the project and there were several leading companies as the share holders to the project.

This was first eco tourism model project in Sri Lanka and the location was Enselwatte estate of Diniyaya own by Mathurata plantation. The site is 506 hectares with 480 hectares of sub-montane and montane rainforest and the balance acreage being VP tea cultivation. It is 213km from Colombo, which takes 6 hours approximately on the Colombo-Deniyaya road.

The location was realy facinating and it was boardering the sigharaja forest. Most of the time it was covered by mist even in the noon.

Hemantha & Dhammika with other project members

Entrance to the location

The Site

This was really interesting, entertaining and extremely busy period of time. We all were busy with tight schedule since it was the start of the project. Hemantha was working hard to get the project going along with the set targets, Dhammika was working at the site with the site team as the site coordinator, Saliya was with the tourism cluster, Aruni was coordinating with the USAID, Laksman was looking after energy and I was setting up finance assistance to the project.  It was really nice team and we enjoyed the time at Ecolodge office.

At Dhammika's Birth Day - Waters edge

Hemantha & Myself visited the site at every month with project consultants for review meetings. There were two bungalows, one was the office and Dhammika’s place and the other one was the visitors bungalow. Saliya also joined us several times and Laksman was unlucky since he never visited the site during his stay in the project.  

Visitors Bungalow

Dhammika's Bungalow

A project meeting at site

Unfortunately the completion of the project was not successful due to various external political influences. Several time we had to stop and start constructions due to various issues and by the time we all resign the project it was not even part completed although at was almost 4 years after initiation. People who influenced to stop the project did not know the true facts and importance of the project but they were misled by several political fronts. As at now the project completed but not in full scale or with the original plan. But it is happy to know at least the Rainforest ecolodge is now in operation.

http://www.rainforest-ecolodge.org/chalets.html

Bahirawa Pooja before the ground breaking

A chat before ground breaking

Ground breaking by Hemantha

There is a piece of paper underneath the foundation stone with the names of project team

Constructions commence

Steel structure of main building

A chalet

Memories of interesting moments during the time at ecolodge