Tuesday, November 18, 2008

National Tree Planting Campaign




We are slowly getting settled down at our new home facing the Bellanwila-Atthidiya bird sanctuary. We feel it is one of gifts we got from the nature and our bird check list is going higher and higher day by day. Especially as this is the migratory season we are getting more birds in and around our garden. While enjoying the nature Kanchana had to spend time between Udawalawa and Anuradhpura delivering lectures and participating in the project activities.

We were invited for the National tree planting campaign organized by the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka two weeks ago. The Minister of Environment Mr. Champika Ranawaka was the chief guest and it was held at Udawalawa National park.

Both “Friends of Pelicans” and “Friends of Langurs” participated in the campaign and a plot was given to us to maintain following tree planting. Mr. Champika Ranawaka also inquired about the progress of our langur project and the Pelican project as he was aware about both projects we are conducting in Udawalwa and in Western province. Dr. Suhada Jayawardana , the Veterinary surgeon to the Eth Athuru Sevana (Elephant transit home) at Udawalwa also shared his views and experience on langurs with us on the same day.

We held a joint workshop for both “Friends of Pelicans” and “Friends of langurs after the tree planting campaign. This was the first time some of our youth members from langur project visited Udawalwa . It was an exiting event for everybody as they exchanged ideas and experience of two different projects and also different climatic conditions.

During the last weekend we participated at another programme of Holistic approach to motherhood at Kalutara where 200 pregnant mothers with their spouses participated .Kanchana also delivered a lecture on Child and environment to 50 parents at Moratuwa on Sunday as a part of a programme conducted by Ministry of Labor to combat child abuse and child labor.