Just came to know ‘Snowy’ – the Army Tracker Dog that has also been a war hero died recently. Herewith posting my article published on 04.05.2008 as a tribute to Snowy’s brave act and heartening loyalty his master… http://sundaytimes.lk/080504/Plus/plus000016.html Malaka Rodrigo reports on an Army dog’s courage on the battlefront The place is Weli Oya and the date March 14. ...
A jungle cat was killed by a hit-and-run Jeep in the Yala National Park early morning on June 26. The incident occurred near Gonalabba and Madapara. Attempts to save the wild cat proved futile. Pic by Hansa Premakumara Eyewitness Hansa Premakumara, who sent in the photograph of the dead animal, said the safari jeep was being driven at high speed. ...
Runaway kites prove fatal for unwary birds – published on SundayTimes on 16.09.2018 http://www.sundaytimes.lk/180916/news/heavens-death-traps-311589.html The sight of kites flying high in the skies being joy to the beholder but runaway kites are an increasing threat to local birds that become entangled in the strings. Entangled victim: Egret caught in a kite thread (c) Sumith Bandara Art master Shantha K. Herath ...
Today is Vesak. I was awakened until late last night trying to complete the Vesak Lanterns. Then I spot Vesak Full Moon- The sky was clear and the whole area was glowing with the light spreading by the moon relatively undisturbed by the lights of the vehicles, houses etc.. There are vesak lanterns, pandols and various other forms we use ...
Push to honour Prof. P.E.P. Deraniyagala for his research This week, an enigmatic whale first described studying a specimen found in Sri Lanka has been reclassified as a new marine mammal species. The whale species – member of a family known as beaked whales for their elongated beak-like snouts – bears an interesting history.On 26 January 1963 a specimen ...
New animals arrive in Zoo as exchange program with Prague zoo swapping for a pair of Pinnawala Elephants. Six new animals arrived last Thursday to Dehiwala Zoo as a result of an animal exchange program with the Chez Republic’s Prague zoo. This includes pairs of Przewalski’s Horses, River Hippopotamuses and Komodo Dragons. Komodo Dragon is the largest monitor lizard in ...
October 13th was International Day of Disaster Reduction. That same week lightning strikes claimed several lives in Sri Lanka. Although the drought appeared to be easing in some areas of the country with the onset of rains, it has come at a price with lightning strikes killing five people during the past few weeks. Two Korean tourists were among the ...
A special perahera down Hikkaduwa last week featured not just the traditional drummers and dancers but freshly harvested cinnamon, to remember local cinnamon growers lost to the 2004 tsunami – Malaka Rodrigo reports Seven years ago, the tsunami destroyed the Southern coastline killing thousands and destroying homes and livelihoods. The salt water that swept as far as three km ...
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is indeed a special bird that was common decades ago. They were considered a good-will bird, so boxes, pots with holes were kept inviting them to nest near our houses. Sparrows were a common scene in most the public places like markets or railway stations. But this bird once commonly recorded started to disappear without our ...
Where humans failed, our rilawas succeeded Although human Sri Lankans have failed to take leading roles in Hollywood a film composed entirely of Sri Lankans has now entered the history books and the actors are our closest cousins, our own rilawas, the endemic toque macaques (Macaca sinica). The epic story of a monkey troop living in Polonnaruwa, captured in ...
A new book on Freshwater Fish of Sri Lanka has been launched few days ago. The book contains more than 300 photographs of all the 92 different Freshwater fish that record in Sri Lanka except for Martinstine’s Goby. 27 Estuarine fish and 23 exotic species. This book is a major publication on country’s Freshwater fish after the book published by Mr.Rohan Pethiyagoda ...
“The Symposium on Combating Wildlife Crime” has been organized as a side event to the 16th meeting of the CITES Conference of the Parties. This is jointly organized by CITES Secretariat and Asian Development Bank (ADB) and participated by law enforcement officers from different parts of the world. Today (10.03.2013) was the Day 1 of the event that is also ...
Kumamoto City council arranged a field visit to see how they utilize the ground water resources. The attractions of the Kumamoto Prefecture including the Kumamoto castle and mount Aso which is one of the largest active volcano of the world has been visited. At the Shirakawa Fountain head; we found cleanest water that was so refreshing. The Sakura trees in Kumamoto ...
The world celebrates International Day for Biological Diversity each year on 22nd of May. In Sri Lanka atleast 3 events were held to mark this important day paying attention to the Earth’s Biological Diversity. The main event was organized by the Ministry of Environment (Biodiversity secretariat) and Ministry of Agriculture commissioning a food outlet ‘Hela Bojun’ that promotes food made ...
President Maithripala Sirisena, who himself took on the Environment portfolio, will halt sand mining in Polonnaruwa from today (February 1). He has also ordered his officials to evaluate sustainable river-sand mining and look into alternatives. There has long been small-scale sand mining in the flood plains around Manampitiya Bridge in Polonnaruwa but operations rose sharply some years ago as demand ...
This article was published on 31st of August 2014. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/140831/plus/i-spy-with-my-little-eye-a-bird-115448.html ‘Wild in Ruins’, Lester Perera’s exhibition celebrates both wildlife and archaeological sites Well known wildlife artist and leading naturalist Lester Perera is ready with his next exhibition of wildlife art under the theme ‘Wild in Ruins’. Among the colourful paintings of birds using watercolours and acrylics, the exhibition contains black and white ...
On World Migratory Bird Day this weekend (9-10 of May), Sri Lanka celebrates the 200 birds that migrate to the island annually and become an important part of this country’s biodiversity. These birds fly thousands of kilometres, even crossing great oceans, in order to reach their destinations during the two-way journey. They are vulnerable to dangers lying in their path that ...
Conservationists plan for setup new National Parks. Also stresses the importance of genuine and thorough protection for these areas and not simply labelling them “national parks”. The government has stretched out a hand of protection of the threatened wildlife across the north, from the ragged ponies of Delft to birds that breed only on a single islet in the Adam’s ...
More than 50 expatriate Sri Lankan scientists were in Sri Lanka last week to attend a forum to discuss ways to boost the country’s economic and social development. The arching theme of the event was “Empowering Sri Lanka through Networking and Sharing Scientific Knowledge.” National Science Foundation chairperson Professor Sirimali Fernando addressing the forum The three-day event, held at the ...
Brazil is on the other side of the world and I had to travel over 20 hours to reach the city of Rio de Janeiro where the Earth Summit RIO + 20 takes place. This is note writing on the flight en-route to Brazil where I have to spend over 14 hours.. I am in the flight en-route to ...
