1ST RUBBER TREE IN SRI LANKA

Rubber in Asia is still big business. In Sri Lanka, it is the Number 2 export behind Tea. Rubber trees are not native to Asia. They were imported from Brazil by way of England. In this clip we visit the site of where the first Brazilian rubber tree in Sri Lanka was planted. It is in a botanical garden not far from Colombo called Henarathgoda Botanic Garden in the town of Gampaha. Oddly enough, there are numerous books on sale in Sir Lanka about the Tea Industry but nothing (I could find) on the Rubber Industry there. If you know of anything let me know.

The removal of 50,000 rubber tree seeds from Brazi in the mid 1800's by the Englishl is still considered one of the biggest acts of bio-piracy in history. You can learn the whole story by watching RUBBER JUNGLE - PART 3 "The great Rubber Seed Heist of Henry Wickham" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3lP3f7fZ6o

Special thanks to Karu for his interview. If you are planning a trip to Sri Lanka, you can contact him at info@enjoysrilanka.com or visit his website http://www.enjoysrilanka.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Rubber
• Jungle
• Latex
• Sri
• Lanka
• Henarathgoda
• Botanic
• Garden
• Gampaha
• trees
• hevea
• Brasiliensis
• euphorbiaceae
• plantations
• para
• brasil
• brazil