Nihal Fernando: An Enduring Brilliance
I had heard of Nihal Fernando, not just as one of the greatest photographers this country has ever produced, but who also was at the heart of many notable conservation campaigns of…
Author: Rohan Wijesinha
The Fate of Nature in Sri Lanka: The Time to Act is Now
Emeritus Professor Sarath Kotagama needs no introduction to any in the conservation community of Sri Lanka. Not always seeking populism but preferring pragmatism, whether one agrees with him or not there is…
Uda Walawe Is Dying!
On World Wildlife Day, it is important to remember both the triumphs and the tragedies of conservation in Sri Lanka. One of these is the Uda Walawe National Park, which was established…
Drones in National Parks: For Whose Benefit?
For many years the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) has been criticised for its lack of intent in upholding the principles of conservation. There are times, however, when the DWC does act…
Time for Action to Halt Environmental Destruction
United Nations Observances In 1985, the United Nations declared that the first Monday in October is celebrated as World Habitat Day. The purpose was to “…to reflect on the state of our…
Human-Elephant Conflict Continues Unchecked
There are less than 500,000 wild elephants in the world. These comprise of just three families, the African Bush (Savannah) Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant; all are classified…
Saving the Leopard from Slipping into Extinction
In 2021, the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society (WNPS), Sri Lanka’s oldest such organisation (the third in the world), with the aid of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), persuaded the government…
Arming Farmers is Not the Answer to the Human-Elephant Conflict
Policymakers cursed with a lack of original thinking, especially with the possibility of elections in the offing, resort to knee jerk reactions to long standing problems rather than seek informed advice and…
Saving Forests with Corporate and Public Responsibility
We know this and we know that despite all of their expressed concerns and intentions that the policymakers have little thought of doing much to reverse this trend. Rather than bemoan this…
Short Sighted Policies Destroying Sri Lanka’s Wildlife
In February 2023, the prestigious Forbes magazine proclaimed Sri Lanka as having the Top Wildlife Safaris Outside of Africa for the year 2023. “The nation has one of the planet’s densest populations…
Deep Jungle Fever: A Symptom of a Greater Malady
The traditional conservation laws and policies of Sri Lanka are largely not working. If they were there would not be so much unrestrained destruction of wildlife and forests. These pieces of legislation…
Conservation: Reaching a Point of No Return
Last year, Covid dominated all conversations and contributed to the further exacerbation of a multitude of existing man-made environmental and conservation disasters. “Sadly, conservation management decisions seem now to be made at…
Vital Northern Mangroves Need Uncompromising Protection
Tashiya de Mel On the northern coast of Sri Lanka in the Mannar District is a place of extraordinary importance to conservation and to the economic wellbeing of the human populations who…
The Horror Of Horowpathana: Starving Elephants to Death
Right now, and understandably, the media is consumed by the political events of the day, matters of such magnitude that the very future of Sri Lanka is at stake; the wrong decisions…
Ecosystem Restoration? Stop the Continuing Destruction
The laudable theme of this year’s World Wildlife Day is Ecosystem Restoration. What a noble ideal but is it applicable to Sri Lanka? In the last two years, the country has seen…