Pelican Conservation Project (PCP)

I made another visit to Udawalawa PCP today to donate library books to Sri Gunaratana Pirivena (Damma School) as a part of its project activity. We selected this Dhamma school library for the donation as the temple has been very supportive for project activities from the inception. The temple has been house for the “Friends of Pelicans” activities and we are planning to hold the final exhibition of the project in March at the same temple. This will be the final event of PCP activities of the area and it intends to educate the community members in the area and exhibit the findings we have on pelicans of the area. We believe that conservation action should begin with the support of the local community and they should be empowered with correct and accurate knowledge on their environment. All the activities done so far will contribute to achieve this objective and we hope that the community will contribute in a big way in conservation of Spot Billed Pelican in the area.

We also erected the billboard on the bank of the Udawalawe reservoir beside the main road depicting the importance of the conservation of Pelicans. I hope whoever travels on this road will learn its importance and will not pollute the adjoining tank which is a main habitat of the Pelicans in the area. Our local team (Friends of Pelicans) will be the sole representative of the ECO-V PCP in the area at the end of the project and we intend to empower them with necessary support to initiate local conservation actions in the future.
We have already initiated the preliminary activities of conservation of Purple faced leaf langur with Dr. Rudy Rudran from USA and the team and I am looking forward to this new project as it also involves another endemic species which has been threatened due to human action.