Sunday Times 2
Are our National Parks sanctuaries or concentration camps for elephants?
View(s):WNPS lecture:
The idea in creating protected areas is that animals will find refuge there and lead a sheltered life, free from the detrimental impacts caused by humans. A large segment of the protected area network of the Department of Wildlife Conservation was set up specifically for the conservation of elephants. However, all is not well with the elephants in our protected areas – many of them are starving to death. What is causing this paradox and what can we do to put it right?
Dr. Pruthuviraj Fernando
Dr. Pruthuviraj Fernando will deliver the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society’s monthly lecture on the subject ‘Are our National Parks, sanctuaries or concentration camps for elephants?’ on Thursday, October 22 at 6 p.m. at the Met Department auditorium, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7.
Dr. Fernando qualified as a medical doctor but decided to pursue a career in conservation biology. Subsequently he obtained a PhD from the University of Oregon USA on the ‘Genetics Ecology and Conservation of the Asian Elephant’. He pioneered genetic analysis of Asian elephants and radio tracking elephants in Sri Lanka.
Currently he is Chairman of the Centre for Conservation and Research (CCR), which conducts research for mitigating the human-elephant conflict and conservation of elephants.