Keeping everyone informed
The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka (WNPS) joins the global conservation community in mourning the passing of Dr. Jane Goodall — an extraordinary scientist, visionary conservationist, and a true champion of nature. Her work transformed our understanding of the natural world and, more importantly, our place within it.
In a landmark partnership blending ecology and heritage, the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, through The Lunuganga Trust, has joined with Preserving Land and Nature (Guarantee) Limited (PLANT) to restore two islands in the mangrove-rich Bentota lagoon—Honduwa and Appaladuwa. A recently signed MoU outlines their long-term conservation, making them models for private land stewardship at a time when Sri Lanka’s forests rely heavily on state reserves.
Sri Lanka has lost more than 6,400 elephants in the past 24 years — an average of over 260 per year — and 250 more have died in just the first six months of 2025. For Jehan CanagaRetna, Vice President and Head of the Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) Sub-Committee of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS), these statistics are a painful reminder of a crisis that has escalated to alarming levels.
Born free…and wild…to a devoted mother who would sacrifice her life for you, and to others of your kind who would do their utmost to protect you. Free to roam over vast spaces wherever the group took you, learning, feeding, playing, and doing whatever a young elephant is born to do. Suddenly, without any warning, whether gunshot, explosion or electrocution or poison or accident, and it all disappears in brief, confusing, painful moments, and you are alone apart from being surrounded by a noisy throng of beings you had been taught to fear. Mother is now a lifeless or dying heap on the ground; protective siblings, aunts, and cousins have disappeared, either in terror or hopelessness; today has become a living nightmare. What? Why? Who? Where? What was once filled with the promise of future has suddenly come to an end. Welcome to the suffering of an elephant orphan.
An elephant broke the window of Mrs Neelamma's home, 69, while the whole family was sleeping. It happened at night about two years ago, in Wilachchiya, a town just 10 kilometres from Wilpattu Park, in north-western Sri Lanka.
Colombo, Sri Lanka, 19 August 2025: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka, under its Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), together with the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS), and LOLC, under the guidance of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, launched a pioneering Livestock Insurance Scheme aimed at reducing human–wildlife conflict and safeguarding the endangered Sri Lankan Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya). The launch event today was attended by Mr. Ranjan Marasinghe, Director General, Department of Wildlife Conservation; Ms. Azusa Kubota, Resident Representative, UNDP Sri Lanka; Mr. Kithsiri Gunawardena, Chief Operating Officer, LOLC; Mr. Graham Marshall, President; and Spencer Manuelpillai, the project lead of WNPS.