Camera Trapping To Monitor Their Health

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Chandima Fernando & Ravi Corea

Monitoring the health of free ranging wild animals is one of the toughest challenges for conservationists and wildlife managers.  If the animal is a highly mobile animal like the elephant, then, it is near impossible.  Unless the animal had been made immobile due to a debilitating wound or situation, to track an injured wild animal even with the slightest mobility is a daunting task. By serendipitous events we have found that remote cameras could be an effective technology to monitor injured elephants.  But the underlying ...Continued

Neil Perera – An Unsung Hero, An Untold Story

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Spectator

Sunday (17) marked the 23rd Anniversary of Sri Lanka winning the ICC Cricket World Cup. The architects of the country’s biggest achievement in the sporting arena are all too known, but Neil Perera has remained an unsung hero. The same is true of most real heroes in Sri Lanka, where nobody sans self-marketing skills gets recognition. Perera was elected Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in 1991 with Tyronne Fernando as the President. During the Executive Committee’s first meeting at Maitland Place, Perera discussed with ...Continued

Continuing The Practice Of Living Beyond Means

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Prof. Sirimevan Colombage

Budget 2019 themed “Enterprise Sri Lanka – Empowering the People and Nurturing the Poor” envisages to promote a new form of private sector free from the protectionist mindset that can operate efficiently in a rule-based system within a competitive market environment. Loan concessions and various other incentives are to be given to prospective entrepreneurs with a view to create an entrepreneurial society, particularly among the youth. Another programme highlighted in the Budget is the “Gamperaliya” scheme, which is meant for accelerating village development through infrastructure ...Continued

Social Media Declaration, A Timely Need

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Kshama Ranawana

Just over a year ago, social media faced a shut down in Sri Lanka.  The action, enforced by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), came in the wake of the violence that erupted in Digana, in the Kandy district between Sinhalese and Muslims.  While the incident that sparked the violence was not caused by social media, it was seen as the prime culprit in helping to spread rumours and misinformation. In less than a decade, social media has evolved to become the foremost communicator of information.  ...Continued

Of ‘Local Universities’ And ‘Foreign Universities’

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Sasanka Perera

On the 12th of March 2019, after much delay, the Sri Lankan parliament finally approved the country’s budget.  Sri Lanka, with its cash-starved economy had been hobbling along since last year’s constitutional crisis. Though there were threats from the opposition of defeating the budget and toppling the regime, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera managed to secure a clear majority in support for his budget proposals, and ensure the survival of the regime he represents in the process.  As to be expected, since 2019 is an election ...Continued

‘Lone Wolf’ Terror And The ‘End of History’

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Dissector

Not only was New Zealand’s taken-for-granted peace shattered but also popular theories about the evolution of history reduced to tatters when ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorist Brenton Tarrant opened fire on two New Zealand mosques a few days back and cold-bloodedly killed some 50 worshippers. Among other things, we are reminded that no country could be declared as absolutely safe from terror today. Tarrant joins Anders Behring Breivik of Norway as a contemporary ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorist marked by ruthless efficiency of the most chilling kind. Breivik hit ...Continued

Demerits Of An Education System Stalling Development

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H.G.S Prematunge

(The third in a series of articles on education related issues) The Sri Lankan education system is not without merits. According to the World Bank collection of development indicators we have achieved universal primary education and gender parity, with 98.18 percent enrolment rate for males and 96.43 percent enrolment rate for females as at 2016. Sri Lanka has a Human Development Index value of 0.770, and ranked 76 out of 189 countries, in 2017, mainly due to our free education and health policy. In fact, ...Continued

Save Sinharaja From The World Bank!

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Dr. Prasanna Cooray

World Bank’s (WB) 2016 April report, titled, “International Development Association (IDA) Project Appraisal Document on Ecosystem Conservation and Management Project”, serves as the official document with regard to the ongoing ESCAMP project that stipulates the development of certain selected ecosystems including some protected areas (PA) in the country. The protected areas, identified in the report include Sinharaja, the only rainforest reserve in the country and a world heritage site and the Yala, Minneriya, Horton Plains and Uda Walawe national parks. Through this project the WB ...Continued

Untold Stories Of The Lahore Attack

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Spectator (08/03/2019)

March 3rd marked the tenth anniversary of heavily armed gunmen opening fire on a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, Pakistan. Several policemen were killed in the attack, which left quite a few other law enforcement officers and members of some of the Sri Lankan squad and support staff injured. Two civilians were also seriously injured. What happened that day has been well documented but there are still untold stories. Suranga Lakmal, the lionhearted fast bowler, who has become Sri Lanka’s leading seamer was on ...Continued

It’s Time To Be The Change!

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Kshama Ranawana (08/03/2019)

That only 4% of 90% women who answered yes to a survey question whether they had been sexually harassed on public transport, had the courage to seek help from the police, is a serious indictment on Sri Lankan society and the police service itself. Whether the 4% who sought help were successful in getting justice, the survey does not say. However, given the general lackadaisical attitude of both officials and the public to the issue of sexual harassment, one could safely guess that in most ...Continued

Regulation Necessary To Mitigate Negatives And Enhance Positives

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HGS Prematunge (08/03/2019)

(Second installment in a series of articles) Shadow education, supplementary education, or whatever the moniker one may use, private tuition has become a necessary evil, ironically even in countries that have a well-established free education systems. When the majority of students attend private tuition classes, those who do not do so are at a direct disadvantage. Supplementary tuition has become a way of life in many Asian countries. As discussed in the previous article in this series, private tuition encourages social inequality. Regulating shadow education ...Continued

Buddhism, Sustainability And Sri Lanka

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Srilal Miththapala (08/03/2019)

Today, sustainability is fast becoming a very relevant and essential aspect of our lives. This has come about as a response to the high degree of consumerism that prevails in the modern world, and the resultant use of fast depleting natural resources, giving rise to global warming and climate change. In quest of sustainability, the competitive business landscape is already starting to transform, forcing companies to change the way they think about products, technologies, processes, and business models. Sustainable growth and development requires a harmony ...Continued