Keeping everyone informed
In celebration of the National Tree Planting Day, Monday 15th November, a tree planting event was conducted on Sunday 14 th November at the Bellanwila-Attidiya Sanctuary, the site of WNPS’s ‘Green Isle Project’. The initial idea and commitment came from Seyara and her friends from Visakha Vidyalaya to plant 100 trees of recommended species. A highlight of the event was the planting of 5 saplings of the endemic Crudia Zeylanica, which was believed to be extinct in the wild.
In 2020, Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) initiated Sri Lanka’s first-ever Life Insurance Policy for the employees of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). The program which continues in its second year has so far provided Life, Permanent, and Partially Disability Cover to 2,670 DWC employees.
Lanka Ratne Martin Wijesinghe, the legend of Sinharaja passed away last night after a brief illness. He was born on a Christmas eve - 24 th December, 1939.
Sri Lanka’s current mangrove cover, estimated to be 15-000 19,000 Hectares, is a mere ~ 0.3% of the total landmass and is critically low, putting the island at risk form the impact of climate change and natural disasters such as storm surges and Tsunamis. Mangroves are an integral part of our forests and constitute about 2% of Sri Lanka’s total forest cover - they are very much a part of the fast dwindling 17% of our primary forests.
Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) is honored to be able to gift the field officers of Udawalawe covering the beat offices of Kalthota, Maw Ara, Galkatukanda and Weheramankada, with special uniforms designed by the WNPS and supported by Mercantile Investments and Finance PLC, Bam Holdings Group, MAS Holdings, Dynawash and a host of Members and Non-members who contributed generously. The Society appreciates the continued support of its membership towards different project and can’t be happier that non-members are also contributing positively to the conservation efforts of the Society. A distinctive feature of these newly designed uniforms was use of Natural dye extracted from tea leaves by Dynawash, to dye the trousers.
WNPS in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) Gal Oya team, are currently undertaking a project to cleanup Senanayake Samudraya of discarded fishing nets and other debris leftover by fishermen, which are posing a serious threat to local wildlife.