COLOMBO — Monkeys were expected to be among the chief culprits identified as Sri Lanka carried out a nationwide survey on March 15 of crop-raiding animals. But in a small village near the Sinharaja Forest Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an unusual population of langurs has captured attention, becoming a local tourist attraction. Purple-faced […]
Tag: Sri Lanka
1 in 4 freshwater species worldwide at risk of extinction: Study
The most extensive global assessment of freshwater animals to date has revealed that a quarter of all freshwater animal species on the IUCN Red List are threatened with extinction. The largest number of these threatened species are found in East Africa’s Lake Victoria, South America’s Lake Titicaca, Sri Lanka‘s Wet Zone, and India’s Western Ghats […]
Relief in Sri Lanka as key threat to nonprotected forests is repealed
COLOMBO — Environmental activists in Sri Lanka are celebrating the end of a 2020 decree that left the island’s nonprotected forests more vulnerable to agriculture and development projects. “This is a landmark victory for the protection of these important forests, securing their long-term conservation,” said Eric Wikramanayake, chair of the Environmental Foundation Limited (EFL). The […]
Death tolls mount as elephants and people compete for land in Sri Lanka
Setting out from home to collect firewood on a cool spring morning last year, Harshini Wanninayake and her mother had no idea only one of them would come back alive. The pair were walking to a nearby forest from Eriyawa, a village in north-west Sri Lanka, when they heard a loud rustling close by. “It […]