Episode 34 – Anawilundawa Sanctuary

How Anavilundawa became a Ramsar Wetland

In the year 2001, we proposed to make the Anawilundawa Sanctuary, a Ramsa Wetland. The RAMSA declaration aims to safeguard wetland ecosystems in a variety of ways. The only Ramsar wetland in Sri Lanka was Bundala Wetland till 1991. Other than that, no other wetland was included on the Ramsar list.

It was initial days of my duties at the Wildlife Conservation Department. Mr. Dharmakeerthi oversaw the Development and Management Division, where I was employed as an Assistant Director at the time. During that time, Mr. D.P. Gunasekara served as the Director General of Wildlife, and Mr. ChandralalHerath held the position of the Deputy Director.

They all agreed that Anavilundawa is an important sanctuary and the lakes and ecosystemsin it should be protected. But the data related to Anavilundawa was minimal and finding related data was a heavy task. I could only find the 1:50,000 map and 1:10,000 map of the Survey Department. My superiors asked me to get support from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for this project.

As I recently joined the service and was unaware that departmental vehicles could be utilized for official purposes. At that time, the Department of Wildlife Conservation was located at Gregory Road, Colombo. The IUCN office was near Thimbrigasaya. I rolled up the maps and came to IUCN by bus. It was headed by Dr. ChannaBambaradeniya, while Mr. Sandun Perera and some other officers were there. There, we decided to go on a field trip to Anawilunda. Accordingly, we went on a field visit in a Wildlife Department vehicle and an IUCN vehicle. In this field visit, we met Arachchikattua Divisional Secretary, Mr. Alex Fernando. He was very happy after hearing the details and promised to give maximum support.

We went on several field visits. Initially, the people around did not like this task and they thought that it was something underhanded. People also did a protest campaign against us. As IUCN was mentioned, it must have been thought that it was an internationalized deal. We made a map and booklet of the area.

We did not have an office in Anawilunda. Anavilundawa was managed from the regional office on the Colombo Puttalam road, while the Assistant Director’s office was in Anuradhapura. The Divisional Secretary said that we will have a meeting with the people of the area. In this area, there were fishermen, farmers, people who come from remote areas for sand mining, and people who are involved in the tourism industry. The meeting was attended by the Divisional Secretary, IUCN representatives, Wildlife Conservation Department officials, Fishermen’s Associations, Agricultural socities etc. People had a good understanding of the value of ecosystems in Anavilundawa Sanctuary. After the meeting, people knew that this was going to be good work. Over time, people became friendly with us.

The Divisional Secretary gave land to build the Beat office. People liked it because it was difficult to do illegal activities when there was a beat office. We did three main analyses, namely social, biodiversity and land use. Social analysis was conducted by IUCN through a questionnaire. Information about the opinions of the people of the village regarding conservation, their wishes about the need of the project was obtained.

We used information from Dr. Samararatne of the Central Environment Authority in addition to what we already knew about biodiversity. In terms of land use, data related to how houses are located, the location of mangroves, lakes, and water levels were obtained. Finally, the prepared report was forwarded to the Ramsar office at the IUCN headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. This work took about a year. Finally, on 1^st of August, 2001, we were able to declare AnawilundaRamsa Wetland. It is the second Ramsar wetland in Sri Lanka.

I’m satisfied with the work I did on this. I recently paid a visit to the lady who we called “Nenda” lived at the house where we used to park our cars and spend our brief stays together. She is now staying somewhere else. However, tears welled up in her eyes at seeing me. She talked about the advantages that this area has seen since Ramsar Wetlands were declared. I feel proud of myself for this Anavilundava endeavor in my professional life.