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Volume 28. Issue 6 Journal of the Wildlife and Nature Protection JOURNAL OF THE WILDLIFE AND NATURE PROTECTION SOCIETY OF SRI LANKA VOLUME 28. ISSUE 6 The grey slender loris An elusive, nocturnal primate that lives in the jungles of Sri Lanka. The Loris magazine is named after it. (Pic by Chaminda Jayasekara) ISSN: 0024-6514 LORIS VOL - 28 ISSUE 6 3 Contents 5/ 32/ Message from sponsor The untouched rainforests of the ocean: Exploring the coral reefs of Jaffna 6/ Editor’s note 36/ Trees in the Cathedral gardens 10/ The series of research 44/ papers which were Range extension of the sicklefin chimera presented at the Asia- Neoharriotta pinnata Schnakenbeck,1931 Pacific Meeting of the (Chimaeriformes: Rhinochimaeridae) to Association of Tropical include Sri Lanka and a note on sharks in Biology and Conservation freshwater 22/ 48/ Elephant Light Repel The socio-ecological importance of System (LRS): a pioneering Mahamodara Lake, the mangrove experiment between ecosystem along Keppu Ela and the the Sri Lanka army and Wakwella Marsh the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society 56/ Are we doing enough for biodiversity 26/ conservation? The morphed purple faced leaf monkey 62/ The splendour of Hirikatu Oya 66/ Snapshot: our 125th year 71/ Green Isle 28/ 74/ Youth Ambassador Program: Leopard 30/ Hill of Jawai, India Caught in the act... 4 LORIS VOL - 28 ISSUE 6 Message from Sponsor This issue of Loris comes with a new look and revamped content structure that will excite the young readership that has begun to follow this magazine with avid interest. We wish to felicitate WNPS on its continuous drive to reinvigorate conservation discourse and involve our country’s next generation in environmental stewardship Renuka Fernando Chief Executive Officer, Nations Trust Bank Nations Trust Bank has been supporting the Wildlife and Nature Protection 20 railway stations with the aim Society over the past three years in the publication of the Loris and Warana/ of promoting responsible waste Vaaranam magazines. We have observed with satisfaction the quality of management and curbing marine content that has been generated and disseminated by the publications and plastic pollution. hope that this body of knowledge and the interest it has garnered will result in conservation outcomes to preserve our country’s rich biodiversity. While we mobilize positive biodiversity action, we also This issue of Loris comes with a new look and revamped content structure understand that wider engagement that will excite the young readership that has begun to follow this magazine is needed to sustain and scale with avid interest. We wish to felicitate WNPS on its continuous drive positive outcomes. Magazines like to reinvigorate conservation discourse and involve our country’s next Loris and Warana/Vaaranam provide generation in environmental stewardship. this space for wider discourse and collaboration. We invite you to stay We also take pleasure in observing that this edition of Loris has provided engaged and contribute to efforts coverage on the research papers presented at the Asia Pacific meeting of that seek to preserve and restore our the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation held in Sri Lanka for country’s rich biodiversity. which Nations Trust Bank also provided support in facilitating a session on “Partnerships for Conservation”, where the importance of collaboration was highlighted by our partners like the WNPS, WCS-G, BSL and EFL. The General Committee of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Loris magazine has also provided a platform for the bank’s nature Society extends its sincere enthusiasts to contribute via content with articles and photographs and this gratitude to Nations Trust edition carries images of greater flamingos captured by a member of Nations Bank PLC for its generosity Photography Club. and commitment to wildlife conservation by being the sole In celebrating Nations Trust Bank’s 20th anniversary, the bank has set its sponsor for the publication of the ambition to further scale its conservation efforts with plans to restore 20 Loris. We also thank our other acres of forest in the country. Work on this aspiration is already set in motion sponsors whose support is vital with a partnership with Sri Lanka Army to restore forest in eight acres of for the effective administration of denuded land in the buffer zone of the Wilpattu National Park. Bank had the Society. also partnered with Sri Lanka Railways to install waste segregation bins at LORIS VOL - 28 ISSUE 6 5 Editor’s Note For the love of conservation on a political whim, have displaced and other parliamentarians about elephants from their home ground the importance of acting responsibly Sri Lanka is blessed to have the world’s and is bringing them into conflict with for the conservation of not only our largest land mammal, the elephant, people. In 2018, there were 278 deaths elephants, but all fauna and flora. He roam its terrain. Home to the highest due to the human- elephant conflict. In must hold them accountable for their density of Asian elephants, they are 2019 this increased to 361, the highest digressions. found in 60 percent of the country’s so far. Little is spoken about elephant land mass. A lack of collective deaths from starvation, poaching and It is in this context that we welcome appreciation and value for this relocation, which could be the same the President’s pledges during his phenomena is leaving us with a fast or even higher than deaths from the election campaign to protect natural dwindling elephant population. human-elephant conflict. elephant corridors and to find lasting solutions based on scientific evidence Mainstream and social media have Environmental scientists and and expert opinion to mitigate the been prolific with their reporting of conservationists have already warned human elephant conflict and to train accidents which have left behind of other human-animal conflicts such initiate an insurance scheme for those mangled elephant bodies. The human- as the human-leopard conflict, human- vulnerable to it. The recent separation elephant conflict is constantly in the monkey conflict and the human- of the ministries of wildlife and spotlight. The death of seven elephants peacock conflict as more and more environment from that of tourism is in a single incident in the last quarter of these animals are found straying a refreshing and progressive move of 2019 shocked the country and into cities and urban areas with their which will do away with the need for evoked an outpouring of indignation. habitats being cleared. They are competing mandates to put tourism The government pledged to bring the disasters already in the making and before wildlife when ideally, they culprits to book. But to date there is are simply waiting to happen. should complement each other. no clarity about how the elephants actually died. Were they poisoned or Of course the other side of the story Conservation and development are not? For now, the dust has settled and is the loss of human life. In 2019, often perceived as being at odds with all is forgotten until another elephant there were 109 human deaths. But in each other. But this is not the case. dies. Aren’t these knee jerk reactions an equation where there is man and The conservation of our flora and themselves a damning indictment of animal isn’t the onus on us to find fauna will lead to better eco systems, the lack of commitment to sustainable solutions to coexist? which in turn will generate better eco methods of wildlife conservation? A system services to provide the bedrock conservative guesstimate is that in the This is why the National Elephant needed for development. The practice next ten years, our elephant population Policy for the Conservation and of responsible tourism can make Sri will be down by 50 percent. The current Management of Elephants must be Lanka the best destination for wildlife count is around 6000. approved by the Cabinet of Ministers tourism, second only to Africa. Hence, without further delay. Although we must not kill the goose that lays the We live in a country where religion, this policy was drafted in 2006 and golden egg. which espouses compassion for was updated in 2017 and 2018, it all living creatures, is a pivot for a has been in the pipeline for months A new year brings new beginnings. majority of the population. Ironically, without any forward movement Therefore 2020 should be the year for most elephant deaths stem from the because of administrative apathy. It all conservation organisations in the involvement of man. As Hubert Reeves was drafted with the involvement of country to come together to pool our put it, man is the most insane species. many stakeholders and is considered strengths and resources and reaffirm He worships an invisible God and one of the best in the world. Among our commitment to collectively protect destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that the measures it looks at is how what nature has blessed us with. Let this Nature he is destroying is this God to mitigate the human- elephant us draw up a conservation charter and he is worshipping. conflict and damage to elephants, adopt it at a national convention. how to compensate people affected The painful hakka patas accounts for by the human-elephant conflict, the To use a metaphor, the seeds we sow between 40 – 50 percent of elephant management of elephants and their today will grow into trees that will deaths. Deforestation is taking place habitat and the promotion of scientific give us shade and fruit tomorrow. apace in the name of development research for the conservation and Unless they have the misfortune of and for human settlements, resulting management of elephants. The political being axed. Similarly, starting now, in habitat loss for many animals, not will that is required to approve and the need is for robust conservation just elephants.
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