Current status of Endangered Herpetofauna in Sri Lanka

Asha Dissanayake

Herpetofauna mean all reptiles and amphibians of a certain area. Herpetofauna constitute significant biomass, often exceeding that of all other vertebrates. They form important linkages in the ecosystem by providing dispersal mechanism for plants, form an important link in the tropic structure through predation, and form a potential prey- base themselves, contribute to environmental heterogeneity, and have key stone function in maintaining ecosystem structure and forest important symbiotic associations with an array of organism.

Sri Lanka ranks as a great herpetological paradise in the world. It is blessed with not only high amphibian and reptile diversity and endemism, but also relatively high densities of individuals interested in herpetology and publications, especially when compared with other countries in South Asia.Sri Lanka supports a high species richness and endamacity in herpertofauna, with 106 described species of amphibians and 171 described species of reptiles. Among them there are 56 reptiles and 52 amphibians are totally threatened. Yala National Park,Knuckles Range, Udawattakelle Sanctuary, Sinharaja, and Horton plains are the herpetological importance sites in Sri Lanka.

At present large scale conversion of forest areas for agriculture, plantation and settlements has put great stress on the remaining tropical forests of the country. Changing land use patterns, habitat fragmentation and habitat destruction have caused severe threats to the amphibian and reptiles. Also a combination of other factors including use of organoclorine pesticides and herbicides may have caused declining population of once abundant Herpetofauna of Sri Lanka.

Hence it is of critical importance to comprehensively identify the Herpetofauna of Sri Lanka in order to develop conservation measures which may help in encouraging ecotourism, building biodiversity database, land use planning and the production of regional and international Red Data Books of threatened species.

Effectiveness of current legislation of Protected Areas

D.K Lakmini Senadheera

An area of land and /or sea especially dedicated to the protection of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and manage through legal and other effective means”(IUCN1994). Protected areas (PAs) can be categorized in to six types, according to their management objectives. Category I to VI.

In Sri Lanka, there are eight types National Protected Areas. Strict Nature Reserves National Parks, Nature Reserves, Jungle corridors, Refuges, Marine Reserves, Buffer Zones, and Sanctuaries. Nearly all the natural forests that exist at present are state owned and under the purview of three institutions, namely the Forest Department, Department of Wild Life Conservation and the Divisional Secretaries.

In Sri Lanka, Current legislations for PA’s are mainly categorized in Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO). The category 5, 6 and 7 are introduced in 1993 (act no 49) by amending the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (No 2 of 1937)FFPO (amended)was approved y the Cabinet of Ministers on 12March 2008.It has been forward to Government Printing Dept on 8^th June 2008 for gazzeting. If is expected to submit to parliament and get approved in August 2008.

Some of the policies on Protected Area are categorized in Management and wildlife Conservation National Policy. There are Fines and penalties for illegal activities in PA”s mentioned in the ordinance.(E.g.: For Strict Nature reserves Entering without permission , 15000-50000, 2-5 yrs ) When we consider about the current status of the legislation, The main policy making body for the PA’s in Sri Lanka is Department of wildlife and conservation. Almost all the legislations have been prepared according to the FFPO.DWC have amended seven items in the FFPO, Mainly they have consecrated on, Increasing fines for the illegal activities, Evade the loop holes in legal framework, Make new provision existing legal barriers. There are not enough laws and regulations are currently in operations according to the FFPO and wildlife policy. Some of them are lack of intervention of the police, not enough staff for handle the legislation in WDC. In adequate staff to ensure proper protection, lack of proper transport facilities, not enough weapons to control the illegal activities and poor inspection. Another major problems are, political influences(when making legislation, when implementing the existing laws)Influences of NGOs, Bribery and corruption, Enforcement of existing laws & regulations of protected areas should concentrate on most common illegal activities & violations.

As My recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the legislation on protected areas, the Policy making bodies should be well organized, and all the officers should be well aware about its operations. There should be political support for the policy making and the implementation of the above.The relevant authorities should get support/ assistance from Non government Organizations in making legislation. Recruit more officers and give them a good train. As the community, we should give our full support to the administrative to implement the legislation and conserve the protected Areas. It is recommended that development of an integrated operation plan that takes in to active consideration not only conservation and protection and enhancement of fauna and flora.

Human Elephant Conflict in Sri Lanka:

W.A.S Lakmali

Except for a small remnant population in the Peak Wilderness area, elephants are restricted to the lowlands, especially in the Dry Zone. Over the past 200 years, human land-use has forced the elephants from the wet and fertile regions of the south-west of the island to much drier regions. Between 3,160 and 4,405 elephants are estimated to be present in Sri Lanka (Kemf & Santiapillai, 2000) of which between 2,000 and 2,870 occur largely in the protected areas. The Department of Wildlife Conservation carried out a survey of elephants in much of the safe areas of the island in June 1993, and arrived at a minimum of 2,000 elephants in the wild in the five regions. They are North-western, Mahaweli, Central, Eastern and Southern areas. Almost all estimates are very approximate and these estimates may turn out to be underestimates, given the difficulty in counting elephants in the scrub. Each animal needs hundreds of square kilometers of territory as their home range. While Sri Lanka's forest cover is shrinking because its human population is expanding rapidly. Farmers are encroaching on jungle which was once the sole domain of the elephant. The result is injuries and deaths on both sides of the conflict.

Due to population pressures on elephant habitat, there is a severe toll both on elephants and rural communities from Human-Elephant Conflict. This conflict is at the heart of environmental conflict. With the reduction of the habitats, elephant populations have broken up and some herds have got pocketed in to small patches of jungle. many people are poor and landless, so they clear natural forest for agricultural use. In other parts, quickly expanding farms of such agricultural crops as sugar cane, rubber, and palm oil have replaced most of the forests that once supported wild elephant populations. These land uses increasingly displace wild elephants from their habitats and home ranges, which they travel through in search of food. Frequently, these elephants turn to farmer's crops to supplement their diets. Sri Lanka’s wild elephant population has been increasing over the last 10 years.

Conflict has become serious. These include Kotavehera, Kalegama, Navagattegama, Galgamuwa, Giribawa, Kahalle-Pallekele, Galewela, Pibidunugama, Galkiriyagama and Karuwalagaswewa in the northwest, Heen Ganga to Dumbara valley in the vicinity of Wasgomuwa National Park; Sigiriya-Habarana area in the Mahaweli area, and Ritigala-Kalawewa area.and Haldummulla, Uma Oya; the area between Lunungamvehera, Udawalawe and Bundala; Haltota-Haldummulla area north of Udawalawe National Park in the south. Elephants killed by humans as well as vise versa could be happening frequently in those areas.

Poaching for ivory or meat, Poisoned, cattle born disease, Electrocution and hit by trains are the main reasons for death of elephants. Asian elephants face almost certain extinction in almost every place they exist in the modern world. So conservation of wild elephants as well as protection of cultivations and property of the poor people is essential. In order to that mitigation of human –elephant conflict would be mitigating by adopting many techniques. Electric fencing, establishment of new national parks, habitat enrichment, establishment of Elephant Corridors, increasing the extent of conservation areas, translocation of elephants and elephant drives and integrating elephant conservation with economic development are some of them.

Management Plan of Wild Elephants is essential for Sri Lanka. Little information about available true number of elephants in the wild, the extent of suitable wild lands for the conservation of these endangered populations is needed. GIS and GPS can be used as a new technology for this purpose. The satellite GPS collars used in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to track the geographic location of the collared elephants.

Economic activities that would enable the local communities to derive some tangible benefits from the presence of elephants in their neighbourhood. e.g. manufacture of paper from elephant dung, organic farming using elephant dung, production of biogas using a combination of elephant and cattle dung. Conservation GIS Laboratory will develop a satellite-based early warning system that will demonstrate where rapid habitat loss is occurring.

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Habitat Mapping

Randika Jayasinghe

With the start of a new programme to conserve Sri Lanka’s wildlife and manage its protected areas, a much need boost will be given to wildlife conservation in this country. At the request of the government of Sri Lanka, the Asian Development Bank has agreed to fund the Protected Area Management & Wildlife Conservation Project, which covers a wide spectrum of wildlife conservation activities.

The project, which started off in September 2001, will support efforts to conserve the country’s valuable natural resources and preserve wildlife biodiversity for the well being of current and future generations. Sri Lanka is considered a global biodiversity hot spot because of the large variety of biological species in this small island. Half of these species are endemic. Many migrant species also find a temporary home here where the habitat is critical for these internationally mobile species. If their unique habitats are lost, a number of species will be lost forever.

It is envisaged that the new project will identify the problems, especially in conservation terms, in seven protected areas (PAs) that have been selected under the project. The selected protected areas are Wasgamuwa, Minneriya, Uda Walawe and Horton Plains National Parks, together with the Ritigala Strict Natural Reserve and the Peak Wilderness area.

Preparations of habitat maps for these areas are one of the major activities carried out under component C of the project. Habitats are an integrated reflection of abiotic and biotic factors that shape the environment of a given land area. For this reason habitat mapping plays a vital role in providing relevant information for conservation management purposes.

From a biodiversity point of view the lack of consistent and up-to-date information on type, location, size and quality of natural habitats in PAs in Sri Lanka has been identified as a major constraint for the implementation of the management plans. Therefore the use of habitat maps based on vegetation, soils, geology and slope might be critical when developing management strategies.

Habitat maps play a vital role of providing relevant information for conservation management purposes. They are widely used as a proxy for the biodiversity that exists in different habitat types. They are tools for the development of effective PA management plans and to define various management zones and identification of important conservation goals. Also habitat mapping provides valuable ecological information and to comply with operational tasks such as accurate delineation of protection zones and implementation of statutory measures for conservation.