Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka [FOGSL] was the need of the time for a group of academics of the Zoology Department of the University of Colombo, to promote and to receive scientific knowledge of our avian fauna by attracting the general public of this country for its conservation.The organization was started with a few likeminded academics and professionals in ...
I’m generally lucky for I always get to do what I like. I love my profession; the challenges in engineering and to get involved with birds and nature.It was some years back that I was offered to be a bird guide to a British team of Bird Watchers. I was to assist the professional tour guide ...
The countdown beginsThe long waited re-union named the Mother of all Re-unions; the Golden Jubilee of the Class of 66 of the then St Thomas’ Preparatory School in Bandarawela [STPSB] is just a month away. On the 7thof July 2016 the first member arrives in the country. Dulip Nilaweera also known as ‘Tonto’ both at school and at home, who ...
Boarding schools in the 1950-60 era had a strict dress code and a mandatory list of clothes that had to be furnished when entering the school. Such boarding schools were limited to a few in the hill country with Trinity College and the two S Thomas’ Colleges in Bandarawela and Gurutalawa. Students opting boarding in the city schools were less ...
India and Sri Lanka are two prominent South Asian countries with similar religious beliefs; be it Hinduism or Buddhism both having links in the mainland India and Buddha himself being an Indian. Both religions are close to nature and much of the religious abbeys or temples are located in remote and wildly settings in close proximity to natural habitats away ...
Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans. Among them distance was primeval. . History records of a early Cubit used in the Indus valley in the 3rd millennium BC. The measures of length used in ancient India included the dhanus (bow), the krosa (cry, or cow-call) and the yojana (stage). Yojana may be the equivalent to ...
Horton Planes has fascinated me ever since my school days at Gurutalawa. Many were the weekends spent on the planes in the 60’s when we hiked up there from school. July 13, 2012 was more like a family reunion when we spent the night at the Anderson / Ginihiriya Bungalow in Horton Planes.We scanned the Ohiya side of the planes ...
It was only the other day that some of us were killing the night at our good friend Anura Dissanayakes’s beloved wife’s funeral house. We had taken part in the usual solemn funeral house dinner and was yarning into the night of old schooldays pranks and juicy narratives that befell on many of us at school. Rieza Sulaiman and Athula ...
The bill or beak for a bird is the most versatile anatomical component adopted for its survival. Apart from the common physical features of a feather covered body and egg-laying for breeding; it is the bill and the feet of a bird that vary according to the food and the habitat they dwell upon.A stout and strong bill of ...
Singharaja is Mecca for bird watching in Sri Lanka and are the last fragments of a large rain forest that once covered two thirds of the south and south–west of this island nation in the Indian ocean. Over 80% of the endemic birds , trees and shrubs and amphibians occur here. A biological hot-spot in South Asia.This remaining forest was ...
35 years ago every Friday after the last lecture at uni; I walked up to the Katubedda junction in Galle road Moratuwa; hang around for 20 minutes the most to take a bus home to Galle; 116 km away, in 2 hours and 30 minutes. That was an average speed of 50 kmph. This then ...
Engineering has had an impact in human development from time even before he was civilized. Man used tools even during the stone age when he was a hunter gatherer. Engineering today is multidisciplinary and could primarily be divided into two main divisions; Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering. Mechanical Engineering is defined as a branch of engineering concerned primarily with the ...
Aborigines, indigenous people, first nations are all people who have existed in peace living hand in hand with nature, climate and habitat. And are to be found in the most remote locations on this planet earth. Common to them all wherever they live is that they have all been oppressed, exploited, cheated, tricked and abused by other human invaders. They ...
My daughter now reading for her masters in Saskatoon Canada qualified for her Post Graduate at the University of Nebraska Lincoln….and had to write an introduction to her new professor. The letter was done and forwarded to her present supervisor Dr. Sheila Schmutz for clearance. Sheila’s comments were …. if she was the professor , she would not select her ...
Kataragama the town of Gods located in the South East of Sri Lanka is woven in much folklore, through fear and faith in God Skanda.….Skanda is primarily venerated by the Dravidian Hindu’s of South India and Sri Lanka but his assistance is sort after by people of all faiths in this land. However he is a God of difference. Skanda ...
Sinharaja Forest Reserve is the largest rainforest landmass [22,000 Ac] of a series of fragmented rainforests in the South-west of Sri Lanka. A biodiversity hotspot with an international significance; Declared a Man and Biosphere Reserve, and a World Heritage Site of the UNESCO. It’s got three access ways; the Kudawa entrance via Kalawana with Pitadeniya and Morningside entrances via ...
Gal-Oya a rivulet in the eastern province of Sri Lanka is a perennial source of water originating in the luscious forested tea country of Passara located in the wet central massif. The Gal-Oya Valley Development Plan was the first multipurpose development scheme of post independent Sri Lanka. Irrigating the dry parched lands of the Ampara District and generating 11MW of ...
The Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka [FOGSL] the leading organization for the scientific study of avian fauna in Sri Lanka has taken the leadership in the conservation of birds during the last 40 years. Initiated in 1976, its 40 years of untiring effort in conservation and research has been recognized and honored both locally and internationally.FOGSL has continuously been ...
Canada with changing climates from extreme winters to temperate clime is best described to Canadian standards. Vancouver the port city in the west is the capital of British Colombia and is one of the warmest cities during the winter. On the contrary Vancouver is also one of the wettest cities while on an average there is eleven days of snow ...
THE SRI LANKAN INVENTION OF AN ENERGY DISSIPATING WATER RELEASING MECHANISM FOR RESERVOIRS Sri Lanka with a written history over 2500 years has been practicing soil and hydraulic engineering from about the same period of time. Rice and grain being the islanders staple diet, its community has been rice farmers and needed to store rainwater to cultivate the dry zone. ...
