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| Tuesday, 30 December 2003 |
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by Wasantha Ramanayake The Federation of Wildlife Conservation (FWC), a Non- Governmental Organisation and Toyota Lanka Ltd., signed an agreement in Colombo to prepare ten brochures on ten National Parks to be distributed among the visitors and schoolchildren, recently. Speaking at a conference held at the Institute of Development Administration, Colombo 7, FWC Executive Director Nishantha Bandara said that with the assistance of the Toyota Lanka Ltd., FWC would prepare brochures about ten National Parks around the island which included the recently reopened, Vilpattu National Park being the largest. Nishantha Bandara said that cost of the project nearly, Rs. 300,000 would be borne by the Toyota Lanka Ltd. He said that it was easier to engage the sector in the field of conservation than the World Bank or the IMF, taken into consideration the positive signal given by them. He pointed out the set of brochures available at the Wildlife Department is "not upgraded and does not depict the present situation." He said that they would portray the current situation and would include the latest information on fauna and flora found, endangered species, detailed maps depicting useful information such as places where the animals could be easily sighted, bungalows etc. He further said the brochures would also give guidelines as to the proper behaviour inside the park. "Brochures would contain Dos and Don'ts which would be important in view of the recent developments in removing of valuable plants threatened with extinction in parks by visitors, dumping polythene etc.," he said. Schoolchildren He said that apart from the visitors, the brochures would be distributed among the schoolchildren in adjoining villages, bordering such parks to educate them on the importance of protecting flora and fauna, especially the endemic species. Suren Abeyagoonasekera, Chairman and Executive Director of the Toyota Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. was of the view that Sri Lanka was less concerned with the pollution and conservation issues than the less developed countries in the region such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan where there were tougher legislations to control pollution."Nepal had recently banned the import of diesel vehicles into the country. Bangladesh and Maldives had banned Three Wheelers." Health hazards He claimed that his company was committed to conservation. "Toyota had increased the recyclability of their vehicles up to 80%. The used grease, oil and clothes at our stations are recycled, water is purified and even the smoke discharged from vehicles tuning is released to high air through a chimney." Abeyagoonasekera said that the fuel available in the island was of low quality containing high degree of Sulphur and Lead content which would be detrimental to the health causing health hazards to city dwellers. Referring to a report by the Colombo Municipal doctors, he said that" Traffic Police Officers face greater risk of respiratory problems than the officers working inside the buildings and children who live closer to roads are found to be less intelligent due to the Lead contamination. He emphasised the need to modernise the refinery of the Petroleum Corporation to produce quality fuel. "Our refineries are old. The government should bear the cost of modernising these refineries. Although the cost of such modernisation is high, the nation could immensely benefit." According to Abeyagoonasekera, India is far ahead having Lead free, with less Sulphur content high quality "Avro 4" fuel."Since the world is moving towards a "Zero emission" vehicle quality fuel is a must." He called for an independent body to measure the Lead content in certain "Unleaded" fuel available in the island, since such fuel could still have Lead,"because, fuel storage tanks in the petrol stations are not regularly cleaned," he said. |
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