Baby anacondas at Dehiwala Zoo

by Janani Amarasekara

Have you heard the hot news from the Dehiwala Zoo? An anaconda has given birth to 20 babies!

Twenty three baby anacondas were born initially, but three of them died. So, our Dehiwala Zoological Garden is now the lucky owner of 20 baby anacondas.

If you have seen the movies ‘Anacondas I and II, I’m sure you won’t like the idea of having 22 anacondas (including the parents) in Sri Lanka.

“These baby anacondas were born healthy, now they are really active. We are hoping to give them mice as food, from next week” says Education Officer at Dehiwala Zoological Gardens, Nihal Senarath. Zoo officers are hoping to give these babies to other countries through the animal exchange programme.

“We are hoping to give these animals mainly to Asian countries as the probability (chance) of such births in an Asian country is low,” says Senarath. This is the first time in Sri Lanka that an anaconda birth had taken place.

Normally an anaconda mother gives birth to 4-80 babies at a time, but when it comes to the first litter this figure stands between l0 to 30 per time. Now, our anaconda babies are around 1 1/2 feet long.

According to Senarath, their parents were brought from the Czech Republic in June 11, 2003. When they were brought here, they were just two months old and two feet long. Anacondas are good swimmers; they also have strong bodies. Their weight varies from 60 kg - 180 kg. Anacondas can swallow a human weighing around 55kg. Luckily neither of the adult anacondas have ever attacked zoo workers.

Take care of your textbooks

Do you look after the textbooks you have got from school? Some of you do, but some of you may not bother too much about taking care of them. Some of you may think that they don't need much looking after as you had got them for free anyway. If you fall into this category, it is time you changed your attitude to your textbooks.

Did you know that the government spends millions of rupees each year to distribute these free books to you? So, it is only right that you make the best use of them while enabling other students also to make use of them in the future.

If this reason is not good enough for you, there is now a further incentive for you to look after your books well. The Education Ministry has come out with a plan to offer gifts and certificates to students who use these textbooks carefully. A circular has already been issued by the Ministry to principals and educational officials, advising them to take measures to reduce the cost by reusing textbooks.

Under these guidelines, principals have been advised to summon a meeting of schoolchildren after the final day of the third term test. The day would be named as 'Books Distribution Day' and would be used by principals to advise students on using textbooks with care.

Vehicle emission testing centres established

There are a lot of vehicles which emit (release) harmful gases to the environment in Sri Lanka. These vehicles, which are a menace to society, should be checked; if possible, their problems should be rectified and if this is not possible and if these vehicles are not road-worthy, they should be taken off the roads.

A programme to check vehicles for fuel emissions was implemented recently by the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry in collaboration with the Transport Ministry.

The programme, named 'Haritha Riya', was launched with the opening of the first two emission testing centres at Kiribathgoda and Miriswatta junction, on the Colombo-Kandy highway. These centres will be operated by two private companies which have been accredited by the Motor Traffic Department to carry out such services.

The programme envisages the establishment of 66 fixed and mobile testing centres island-wide. These centres will be authorised to issue Vehicle Emission Testing (VET) certificates to vehicles which comply with the emission standards set by the government. When the programme is fully operational, this certificate would be made mandatory for vehicle owners to obtain their annual revenue licence.

'Haritha Riya' aims to improve the air quality of air in the country by regulating emissions of the transport sector.

First ‘Sobha Ketha’ at Rumassala

There are many people who conduct research into environmental issues and who seek information on environment and other related areas. A centre providing such information to people who desire it has been a long-felt need.

Educational Information Centres on Environment have been planned by the Central Environment Authority to fulfil this objective.

The first of these centres named ‘Sobha Ketha’ was opened at Rumassala, Unawatuna in Galle recently. These centres are expected to facilitate those who want any type of information on the enviornemnt.