Affidavit filed by the Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam in the matter of news item titled "the last feral horses in India" appearing in Mongabay, November 5, 2024. The matter relates to the critically endangered status of feral horses in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park as well as of smuggling of these …
The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis, Osbeck, 1765) is found in coastal waters throughout the Indian and western Pacific Oceans, but the species has not been studied in detail along the coast of India. Records of stranded specimens, occasional sightings, incidental catches, and museum specimens are reviewed here, and these …
experts and activists are apprehensive that the Sri Lankan authorities' recent bid to privatise water services will impinge on the people's right to clean drinking water. While non-governmental organisation Alliance for the Protection of National Resources and Human Rights (apnrhr) voiced its concern over the matter, the Lawyers for Human …
The mounting problem of non-biodegradable plastic waste seems to have caught the Sri Lankan government's attention. The country's cabinet has given its nod to a series of proposals put forward by the country's environment and natural resources minister, Rukman Senanayake, to tackle the pollution problem arising from the improper disposal …
BOWING to activist pressure, Sri Lankan authorities have finally broken their silence about the mandatory labelling of genetically modified (GM) food in the island nation. Efforts are now underway to achieve a breakthrough in the matter though the powers that be are still non-committal. On September 29, S Nagiah of …
The Sri Lankan government has hit upon a practical idea to help the paddy farmers in the country. It has appealed to people to curtail their consumption of bread and opt for rice instead. The country's demand for wheat flour (all of which is imported) has been steadily rising to …
Sri Lanka's Land Ownership Act, which would entitle more than a million landless people in the country to state land grants, has finally been given cabinet approval. The bill will be presented in the Lankan parliament soon. The cabinet nod was delayed because President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga had put a …
the us congress has reportedly approved a us $5-million waiver, thereby quantifying the debt-for-nature swap offer made to Sri Lanka more than two years ago. It is widely believed that this sum is peanuts, considering that Sri Lanka owes the us close to us $1 billion and that the latter …
Sri Lanka has proposed to draft a bill to protect the traditional knowledge associated with medicinal plants. Initiated by the country's ministry of indigenous medicine, the proposed legislation will be drafted by the National Intellectual Property Organisation of Sri Lanka (NIPOS). According to NIPOS, the bill is intended to devise …
the recent Supreme Court (sc) order revoking the ban on the import of natural rubber under the Advanced Licence Scheme (als) has split the sector down the middle. While it has spelt gloom for over 10 lakh small and marginal rubber growers nationwide, the recent sc directive has been welcomed …
Sri Lanka has derived a sure-fire formula for reducing drug prices and curbing the nation's medicine import bill. At a recent seminar, health experts recommended that the island nation import only about 500 essential drugs instead of the more than 8000 currently allowed into the country. The specialists averred that …
Accumulation of sulfur-containing compounds and their bacterial mediated reductions have led to the emission of pungent odors from stagnant water bodies. This study is focused on the contribution of inorganic sulfur compounds in the emission of hydrogen sulfide. The measured dissolved oxygen levels have demonstrated good negative correlations with the …
In 1957, Sri Lankan naturalist Parakrama Kirtisinghe published a monograph titled The Amphibia of Sri Lanka. In it, he recorded the presence of 35 species on the island nation. Over the next three and a half decades, with new species being discovered on a fairly regular basis, this number had …
one year ago, Sri Lanka was asked to consider an unusual proposal by the us. The latter offered to waive the island nation's debt in exchange for control over four tropical forests. The Lankan government had then responded with an unequivocal
In a major blow to the us biotech industry, the European parliament recently approved one of the world’s most stringent regulations on labelling of genetically modified organisms (gmo). The parliament has also decided to retain the ongoing moratorium on the import of numerous gm products till the regulation comes into …
In a landmark development in Sri Lanka's medical history, the country's first test tube baby was born in an entirely indigenous effort. It was a healthy baby girl weighing 3.5 kilogrammes delivered by caesarean surgery. Significantly, for the first time the entire process was handled by local experts. The cost …
Sri Lanka's power and energy ministry is moving towards tapping new alternative energy sources to meet the galloping electricity demand in the country. Recently, the ministry announced an ambitious plan to harness
