Wildlife Archives - USJ - 91��ý

Three Decades of Research Ignored: Wildlife Experts Urge Political Action on Human-Wildlife Conflict at USJ Symposium

admin — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 06:12:38 +0000

The 91��ý recently hosted a pre-symposium public talk as part of the , where leading conservation experts highlighted the urgent need for political action to address 91��ý’s escalating human-wildlife conflict. The event highlighted the alarming fact that, despite three decades of research and evidence-based solutions, political action has been sorely lacking in addressing this critical issue.

A Decade of Unheeded Solutions

Professor Hiran Amarasekera, who initiated this symposium in 1995, expressed deep frustration over the continued inaction in implementing scientifically proven strategies. “For 30 years, researchers have presented concrete solutions at this symposium, yet the same challenges persist due to inaction,” he stated. This sentiment was echoed by other experts, who highlighted the growing disconnect between research and policy implementation.

Elephant Management: A Case Study in Failure

Dr. U K G K Padmalal, a former Wildlife Department officer and researcher at the Open University, shared critical insights into elephant management strategies. Drawing from his experience with elephant drives, he highlighted the historical context of current challenges.

Professor Dewaka Weerakoon recounted the historical context of current challenges, noting that many relocated elephants either died, returned to their original habitats, or moved into agricultural lands, with only a small fraction adapting to their new environments. He showed specific case studies to illustrate the effectiveness and challenges of different approaches. For instance, in the Galgamuwa Teak area, efforts to manage elephant populations through relocation faced significant challenges, with many elephants returning to their original habitats or encroaching on farmlands. In contrast, the DWC fence approach in another area successfully contained elephant movements, although it presented its own challenges.

These case studies highlight the complexities of managing human-wildlife conflict and the need for tailored evidence-based solutions. Professor Weerakoon emphasized that these examples underscore insufficient political will and inadequate implementation of proven strategies.

Primate Conflicts: A Similar Pattern

Professor Chamalie Nahallage expanded the discussion to primate conflicts, illustrating how unimplemented solutions have led to persistent challenges across species. Her analysis underscored the need for a unified approach to wildlife management.

Root Causes and Proposed Solutions

The experts identified unplanned land-use patterns and habitat overlaps as the root causes of human-wildlife conflict. They proposed combining technical solutions and behavioural changes, supported by strong political commitment. Key recommendations included:

– Biological Control: Establish buffer zones, deploy watchdogs as early warning systems, and create natural barriers to separate human and wildlife spaces.
– Electric Fencing: Maintaining and monitoring existing wildlife corridors to ensure their effectiveness as short-term solutions for elephant management.
– Waste Management: Addressing improper garbage disposal, which attracts wildlife to villages, through secured waste systems and community education.

A Call for Political Will and Community Involvement

The experts emphasized that without political commitment, both wildlife and human communities will continue to suffer. They called for:

– Clear demarcation between wildlife and human habitats.
– Improved urban and rural planning to prevent habitat overlap.
– Community involvement in conservation efforts.
– Implementation of the Wildlife Mitigation Plan prepared by the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

The Path Forward

The discussion served as a stark reminder that the tools to resolve 91��ý’s human-wildlife conflict exist—what’s missing is the will to use them. As the symposium approaches, the 91��ý continues to champion evidence-based solutions, urging policymakers to prioritize action over inaction.

The time for change is now. The future of 91��ý’s wildlife and communities depends on it.

For more updates on the 29th International Forestry and Environment Symposium 2025, visit the 91��ý website.

The post Three Decades of Research Ignored: Wildlife Experts Urge Political Action on Human-Wildlife Conflict at USJ Symposium appeared first on USJ - 91��ý.

New analysis recovered 14 unidentified potential new frog species and remove eight from the checklist – USJ joint research

Hiran Amarasekera — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 03:49:03 +0000

Based on the results of a recently published molecular species delimitation analysis, eight species of shrub frogs are not distinct enough to be considered as separate species. However, they also note the presence of 14 distinct undescribed species as well. The paper pertaining to this has been published on 19^th October,2021 in Plosone journal. Four species delimitation methods have been applied to the 16S rRNA frog barcoding gene for all species of shrub frogs. The researchers say, “the three mountain ranges in the wet zone, Knuckles, central hills and Rakwana are very important and playing a dominant role in allopatric speciation of these shrub frogs in the island. But among the species that are merged by the delimitation analyses, a pattern leading towards a model of parapatric speciation emerges”. They also recommend species delimitation analyses in the context of Phylogenetic Species Concept coupled with looking at multiple criteria for species description.

91��ý is an amphibian hotspot of global significance. Its anuran fauna is dominated by the shrub frogs of the genus Pseudophilautus. Except for one small clade of four species in Peninsular India, these cool-wet adapted frogs, numbering some 59 extant species, are distributed mainly across the montane and lowland rain forests of the island. This analysis has merged P. procax��Ի��P. abundus (with priority to P. procax);��P. hallidayi ��Ի��P. fergusonianus (with priority to P. fergusonianus);��P. reticulatus��Ի��P. pappilosus (with priority to P. reticulatus);��P. pleurotaenia��Ի��P. hoipolloi (with priority to P. pleurotaenia);��P. hoffmani��Ի��P. asanka (with priority to P. asankai);��P. silvaticus��Ի��P. limbus (with priority to P. limbus);��P. dilmah and P. hankeni (with priority to and P. hankeni ); P. fulvus and P. silus (with priority to P. fulvus).

This work is a collaborative effort by, Mr. Gajaba Ellepola, Mr. Jayampathi Herath and Prof. Madhava Meegaskumbura, University of Peradeniya, 91��ý and Guangxi University, China; Mr. Kelum Manamendra-Arachchi Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, 91��ý; Department of Zoology, USJ; Dr. Gayani Senevirathne Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, USA and Mr. Rohan Pethiyagoda, Ichthyology Section, Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia.

Surprisingly, all analyses recovered 14 unidentified potential new species as well and those will be described by the team in the future.

Read the full Article :

Download the PDF file

Wireless Sensor Network to solve Human-Elephant conflict – replacement for existing electric fences?

Hiran Amarasekera — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 02:38:59 +0000

Among 13 Asian countries which are natural habitat for elephants, 91��ý is habitat for around 3000-4000 elephants which is 10% of Asian elephants km2 in an area of 65,610 km2 . Human elephant conflict in 91��ý costs the lives of 150 elephants and 50 – 70 people every year. The existing solution is electric fence only capable of mitigating human elephant conflict up to some extent due to its own limitations like neediness and the cost for regular maintenance. Therefore research project led by Faculty of Technology, 91��ý and group of research students at 91��ý Institute of Information Technology have found a more efficient and more effective solution by identifying long term success to the problem of Human Elephant conflict. This study is published in IEEE International Conference for Emerging Technology (INCET) in 2021.

“The proposed model is a wireless sensor-based network which primarily uses geophones, microwave Radar sensors and Infrared beams to detect elephants and integrate with alerting and elephant scare away systems”, said In the first stage of research, researchers discovered a method to detect elephants using the vibration of elephant footfalls gathered from geophones, readings from microwave Radar systems and readings from IR beam systems developed by the researchers. This method is not used or tested in this kind of study so far.

The second phase was conducted to process data gathered from geophones and build a reliable communication method using LoRa and NRF24l01 units. Third stage is the result of previous stages to develop the method to scare away elephants using flashlights, smart electric fences and alerting people using a siren system. At present IR beam-based and geophone-based elephant detection methods and intersystem communication systems are developed and checked with real world scenarios. And a prototype of the elephant scares away system created. Researchers faced a problem to clearly identify elephants from geophone gathered data therefore neural networks used to separate correlation coeffects of elephants’ footfall vibrations from other noises.

A research team at the Faculty of Technology at SJP continues enhancing this study which involves designing and developing vibration detection sensors. The test environment for this with flash lights and IR sensors is under construction in the Habarana area in Anuradhapura district currently. After new device integrations with more real word experiments, this study results will be contributed immensely to solve the human elephant conflict.

Read the PDF – Modern Solution for Human Elephant Conflict