Greenpeace: Giving Voice to the Earth for 53 Years
In 1971, a group of activists set sail from Canada in an old fishing boat to protest against the underground nuclear testing by the US military at Amchitka, an island off Alaska….
Environment
Proposed Wind Farm in Mannar is a Death Trap for Migratory Birds
Mannar is one of the oldest cities in Sri Lanka dating back to the maritime Silk Road and the trade routes between India and Sri Lanka. It also has some of the…
Fighting the Extinction of Sri Lanka’s Elephants
December’s deaths caused by illegal electric fences of three tuskers, beloved characters in their territories, marked the 449th elephant death of 2023, bringing the estimated death toll to the highest ever recorded…
The Lesser Known Lives of Deer in Colombo
A bright yellow road sign on a quiet suburban road, more than 20 km from Colombo, warns oncoming motor traffic of an unlikely pedestrian. This area has become an odd choice of…
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…
Plight of Blue Whales in Sri Lankan Waters
Sri Lanka has had multiple reports of threats posed to the lives of blue whales off its southern coast, with incidents having increased in frequency in the recent past. Reports indicate that…
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…
Microplastic Pollution: A Silent Killer in the Making
I was only a few years old when Sri Lanka opened its economy in the late 70s. The influx of plastics into the island was among the few visible changes I remember…
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…
Macaque Havoc
The narrow, winding road at Kadugannawa is littered with small roadside shops selling corn, grapefruit and the local favourite polos and roti, coconut flatbread with a side of baby jackfruit curry. We…
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…
Beating the Plastic Menace
Increased deforestation, greenhouse gas emission, coal mining, chemical waste and solid waste mismanagement are some of the grave global environmental issues faced at present. The government’s initiative to establish a Climate Change…
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…
Don’t Blame the Monkeys
Animal rights activists and conservationists are up in arms about a plan to send 100,000 toque macaque monkeys to China on the request of a private Chinese firm. The government says the…
Wind Farms : The Death of Mannar
How can the most ambitious renewable power project in Sri Lanka have this many detrimental impacts on the environment and the local communities of Mannar? Thambapawani, a derivation of the name after…
