Kanchana and family in Melbourne, Australia

A big hello to everyone from me, Thushara, Boo and Nipu. We are in Melbourne, Australia now . We came here on 17th March and settled down in North of Melbourne and since then having a busy life . We are here to complete Thushara’s post doctoral training and will be here until January 2011. Kids have started attending the Westgarth Primary school and Thushara joined the Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public health as a visiting fellow. I am also invited to join a research project at Victoria University and looking forward to get more exposure in my research career. I am meeting many people in environmental field and also enjoying nature here. When we came here it was sunny and beginning of autumn but now it is the cold winter.
We are lucky to live just opposite to a park full of tress and many birds including Cockatoos, Laughing Kookaburras, lots and lots of Rainbow lorikeets, Australian Magpies and many Common Mynahs (introduced). We had a day tour to Dandenong Mountains where you feed free ranging birds. It was a nice experience to carry wild birds on your hands and feed them.
We should thank all the friends who supported us to settle down in Melbourne and without there support it would not have been easy. I also had the opportunity to visit Bird Australia and few parks and learn the management of parks by local communities.
We all are doing well and getting more experience and meeting many interesting/friendly people and making more contacts while we all miss our lovely mother Sri Lanka! Thanks to skype I know ECO-V is keeping well under the safe hands of Harsha. Indika and other volunteers are there to help him. They have had a very useful and interesting field trip to Kumana and looking forward to get the write up from Madhubhashini and I will add it next time.

ECO-V members in Jaffna

Finally we were able to visit the North of Sri Lanka in March. We as Sri Lankans have been waiting for this trip for last 30 years. With tribute to all who sacrificed their lives to liberate the motherland, today thousands of Sri Lankans are making their trips to Jaffna every week bridging the gap between North and South of the country. Therefore we thought of as environmentalists and nature lovers we should visit the Northern part of beautiful Sri Lanka on an environmental visit.
A team of 14 (unfortunately we had to limit the number due to transportation and accommodation issues) from ECO-V left Colombo of on February 26th at 4pm. First night we spent in Sarvodaya district centre in Anuradhapura .Most of us were familiar with it as we used to stay there during our Pelican conservation project in 2003-2007. After sleeping few hours we started the journey again at 5am from Anuradhapura and reached Chettikulam around 6.30am. Dr. Shafras a friend of Thushara joined us from there as he has been to Jaffna for several times and none of us have even seen Jaffna before. We visited a lovely tank at Chettikulam according to Shafra’s directions and conducted a bird watching session. Few university students who were new to ECO-V had the opportunity to learn bird watching as we spent around 2hrs in Chettikulam before we headed to Jaffna. Iranamadu tank, Hasalaka Gamini Kularatne memorial at Elephant pass and well known Kilinochchi water tank were the main sites we saw on our way as these spots were well highlighted during the war and for past 30 years. We had our lunch at Paranthan and reached Elephant pass which is the most beautiful area in the A9 road. Unfortunately we could not stop and enjoy environment in the area due to security reasons (land mines were not cleared still and we saw soldiers and de-mining teams were busy working even under hot sun). We reached Jaffna around 5pm and Mr. Sridaran from Jaffna Sarvodaya was waiting for us at Nallura Kovil who arranged us accommodation. It was a nice house where we all happily settled down. We had a short discussion after having dinner in the Jaffna city and all were happy about being able to visit Jaffna after so many years.
Next day morning we all went to Nagadeepa. Thanks to Shafras who was able to make special arrangements for us as many people were still waiting in a long queue, we managed to visit Nagadeepa quickly. It was a lovely 20 minute journey on a very crowded ferry and we were told that more than 200,000 people were there during that weekend as it was a Full moon Poya day. On our way from Nagadeepa we went to Arali point in Jaffna, to see the place where General Densil Kobbekaduwa, General Vijaya Wimalaratne and few other heroes sacrificed their lives for Sri Lanka 13 years ago. We all were speechless when we saw the monument.
As an overall picture about Jaffna peninsula it is not polluted still but it is getting polluted as many people are visiting the area. We all were shocked to see how people dumped garbage even in Nagadeepa Island and no attention is paid by any responsible people in the area. Army and Navy personnel were telling public not to pollute the environment but their effort it was not enough for careless people who are visiting the area. Many lagoons and bird sanctuaries are still need security clearance but we saw many birds from distance. We all were thrilled to see few Pelicans in Elephant pass lagoon. After a very successful two day trip we came back to Colombo with the intention of going back when all the areas are open to public.

Training Programme for ECO-V members

We conducted another very successful training session for ECO-V members on 16th and 17th January at the Sarvodaya training centre in Bandaragama in the vicinity of beautiful Bolgoda River. After very successful KSMA training we were well equipped with tools, material and more importantly with confidence to conduct training. This training was conducted for ECO-V members to celebrate our 9th anniversary which falls on 7th of February. Harsha, Nanda and me conducted the training which included meditation, yoga and a guided field trip along Bolgoda River. Same fishermen who helped us last time came to take us along river safely on their fishing boats (eco friendly boats). It was amazing to see how they have improved themselves in sighting things and describing them to us. I was so thrilled and we planned to train them properly one day to encourage them in eco tourism. All the members wanted to start a project to protect this wonderful eco system, Bolgoda Lake and river after completing the guided tour. Everyone appreciated the training at the end of the day and requested more awareness campaigns in the future .

Let’s plant trees for future generation - The first activity for 2010

What an event to start the New Year!!! We all like to follow the ritual of planting a tree on a good occasion so this time all at ECO-V started the New Year with planting 90 plants around a tank. We had around 100 more plants remaining from our nursery we started for Pelican Conservation Project at Udawalawa. All were very healthy Kumbuk (Terminalia arjuna) plants which is a very important tree species to enrich catchment areas at the water sources.
There were 10 volunteers at the tree planting campaign which took place at Panahaduwa tank in Udawalawa where we have recorded around 230 Spot-billed Pelicans once. It was a very short notice we gave to the “Friends of Pelicans” to join with us on the 7th of January to plant the trees. We started the mission at 10am and completed it by 2.30 pm and came back to Colombo on the same day. All were very tired but were very satisfied about the great mission accomplished. It was very nice to see the plants which we planted last year at the same tank. They had grown up (about 4 feet) and looking healthy. It’s a known fact that these plants have to protected from the free roaming buffalos in the area. Buffalos love tender kumbuk plants. Once they graze the plant gives new leaves and slowly the stem become much harder and after that level plants will grow slowly with out any threat from buffalos. Therefore it takes at least 2 to 3 years for a plant to grow up to a certain level. One day these will be fully grown trees and hopefully they will provide roosting and breeding habitats for many Pelicans and other birds .

Wow! Many birds are still around Attidiya Bellanwila sanctuary.

As you may aware our new house and ECO-V office is at Boralesgamuwa, 15km south to heart of Colombo. Even you can see the tall buildings in Colombo from our balcony. We are facing a part of Bellanwila Attidiya bird sanctuary which is a marsh and situated next to Ratmalana domestic airport. It has become a controversial habitat as many private lands within the sanctuary being developed and by filling them damaging the wildlife . This is the place where I started my career as a bird watcher and I did my first ever research project for my Bsc. degree 15 years ago.

We have been living in this new house for past one year and every day we enjoy the green environment and the water front from our balcony (picture with Boo looking at the lake). I conducted few bird watching sessions for ECO-V members during last year but I hardly had time to watch quietly as my attention was always taken by the two Purple faced langur troops who live in my neighborhood. I usually watch their behavior whenever I look through my windows. I never had the opportunity to get a checklist of birds recently. I was watching birds with John Pilgrim when he visited us and it triggered my enthusiasm again for bird watching which I could not do systematically for a long time. I used my binoculars, note book and guide books and sat in my balcony for one for few hours yesterday and day before.

Believe me, I managed to watch them only for 45 minutes in the morning from 7.30am to 8.15am and another 45 minutes in the evening from 5 pm. I recorded 42 bird species, 2 troops (11 individuals) of Purple faced langurs, thousands of fruit bats and few micro bats. Bird list includes 7 migrants and our dear Spot-billed pelicans (I managed to take a photo when they were flying above my roof).

Isn’t it still a bird paradise? My dear bird loving friends...you have to plan your next holiday with us at ECO-V. You can see them all by just sitting comfortably in our balcony having a good breeze and sun shine. I am sure our dear friends, Sarah Hawkins, Ramesh Kannan, Paul Herbatson, Mark Chappell, John Pilgrim who already visited us will agree with me. You all are welcome!

Happy New Year – 2010

A new year has begun. When we look back at 2009 we can be very happy as we were able to achieve almost all the goals we had for 2009. We will be celebrating our 10th anniversary on the 7th of February 2011,therefore we will set the targets for this year and they will continue up to next year.

Training 20 youth as “Friends of Mother Earth” and completing basic work for habitat conservation in Udawalawa area for Conservation leadership Programme (CLP) award were the main highlights of year 2009. Personally getting training on wetland management from Netherlands, Invasive species management from Durrell; Jersey zoo and scientific writing from India were great opportunities to get developed skills. Also those ave me opportunities to meet new friends from all over the world and had the time to meet my old friends from UK and India.

At the beginning of 2010, John Pilgrim who works for BirdLife Vietnam, an old friend of mine visited us during his bird watching tour in Sri Lanka. It was really nice to have him with us share our experience. I think he really enjoyed the setup at ECO-V office and facilities for our international volunteers.

All at ECO-V and my family are really looking forward to have another successful year. We are looking forward to residential training workshop for ECO-V members which is scheduled for 16th and 17th of January including a nature watching boat tour along Bolgoda lake. We are also getting ready for another awareness campaign in Colombo which will take place in March.

I take his opportunity to thank everybody who were with us for year 2009 by encouraging and admiring our efforts and will very much hope that you all will be with us in 2010 too. We are determined to commit our selves to do our duty to protect Mother Earth.

Thank you and wish you all the best for year 2010 which is the International year of Biodiversity. Kanchana, Thushara, Boo and Nipu

Python in Boralesgamuwa

On 9th December 2009 Harsha, Tharaka, Indika and Kanchana got involved in releasing a Rock python (Python molurus) which was caught in Boralesgamuwa in the suburbs of Colombo. We got the message at 4.30 in the evening but the villagers had caught it in the previous night and kept in a barrel under very pathetic conditions. When we phoned the National zoo we were asked to release it to the Attidiya marsh which is a sanctuary where there are lots of people. We were not happy by the idea as we felt that the python will face the same danger again as there is a possibility of getting it caught by people again. When Tharaka and Indika visited the place where the python was kept people have gathered around it and making fun by showing it to the people who have gathered due to news that spread from the previous night. Somehow they were able to persuade the villagers to release the python. Tharaka, Indika and Harsha were able to put the python in to a big bag and transported it to a forest in Avissawella area by a van. The mission was accomplished around 8pm after getting delayed at an Army checkpoint where we had to answer many questions about transporting a python in a bag. However at the end of the day we all were happy as we rescued its life.
Next day morning Kanchana had to face another group of villagers who were trying to kill a Banded Kukri snake (Oligodon arnensis/“ Arani Dath Ketiya”) while she was waiting for kids’ school van. She was alone trying to convince the people that this snake does not harm for people and asked them to help her to catch it. But they were not so please about her request. However she was able to stop men killing the innocent creature and caught it into a bag and released into the reservation in the Bellanwila marsh behind her house. Wow it was a week of snakes!