T. G. Supun Lahiru Prakash

Guangxi University · College of Forestry

The main objective of this study was to assess the tourism development perception of residents living in one of Sri Lanka's most interesting wetland areas, the Muthurajavela Wetland and Negombo Lagoon. Knowledge of resident perception is essential if tourism is to develop in a sustainable manner. We found that, in general, local people tend to reco...

The endemic Sri Lankan subspecies of rock python, Python molurus pimbura is the largest snake found in Sri Lanka. Though distributed island wide, it is listed as Near Threatened due to the rapid population decline. This is a common victim of illegal trade (as pets and for skin/meat). The prey items of the rock python are poorly documented, but it i...

Biological invasions are among the leading drivers of global biodiversity loss and are responsible for impaired ecosystem structure and function. Underpinning the mechanisms and patterns of biological invasions, particularly how both exotic invasions and native-weed expansion vary across different habitats and variable degrees of human-induced dist...

Providing physical protection to wildlife is among the most high-risk professions in the conservation sector as it is directly associated with the prevention of wildlife crimes. In Sri Lanka, the Department of Wildlife Conservation is the primary government agency responsible for the long-term conservation and protection of biological diversity. Si...

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide and over 20000 people die due to tobacco related illnesses annually in Sri Lanka. According to the global youth tobacco survey 2015 among youth 3.7% reported current tobacco use, 1.7% (males 3.2% and females 0.2% ) reported currently smoking tobacco, 1.5% reported currently smoking cig...

Sri Lanka has taken several steps in tobacco control efforts in recent years, which was the first country in Asia to ratify the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control. It is also the first country in the Southeast Asian Region to introduce tobacco control legislation. This study measured the success of tobacco control efforts in Sri Lanka usi...

Secondhand smoking (SHS) causes serious health consequences to the non-smoking men, women, and children all over the world. The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol of Sri Lanka has taken the initiative in carrying out the National program for establishing ‘SFZs’ for combating SHS in 2016. The purpose of this study was to understand the curren...

Development of sustainable tourism is not possible without the support and involvement of the local community. Thus, it would be beneficial to understand how residents perceive tourism development. This study investigates the main factors that influence residents’ support for tourism development in the context of wetland tourism. The study was cond...

The white-throated kingfisher or white-breasted kingfisher, Halcyon smyrnensis is a common breeding resident found throughout Asia. Both sexes are alike; juveniles are duller than the adults. They breed yearly from January to August in pairs, but the breeding season begins earlier in India and Sri Lanka. The most active period of breeding related a...

The illegal wildlife trade is one of the most lucrative multi-billion-dollar enterprises, involving direct exploitation of flora and fauna around the world. Much of the illegal wildlife trade tends to be associated with a number of charismatic and/or high-profile species and elephants fall into the top-end of this category. Number of studies have b...

Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) is one of the major socio-economic, political, and conservation issues in Sri Lanka. Most previous studies on HEC have been based on the administrative regions of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). However, frequent alterations of their boundaries make it difficult to compare between studies done in differe...

The illegal wildlife trade is considered one of the major threats to global biodiversity. Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) have been highly valued by various cultures for use in religious and spiritual contexts, as a draft animal, and more recently, as a tourist attraction. Thus, the demand for captive elephants is high. Wild Asian elephants are t...

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) has become a serious socio-economic and conservation problem in Sri Lanka. We assessed the overall level of HEC in the country during 2010–2019 and the patterns of conflict in relation to administrative districts. Globally, Sri Lanka had the highest annual elephant deaths and second highest human deaths, due to HEC. Ma...

Background: Food hygiene is one of the key concerns in Public Health and there is an organized food handling establishment inspection system and a laboratory service established under the Food Act of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, grading of food handling establishments is categorized in to four grades (A, B, C, and D) using the Health – 800 format to ens...

Ruhunu (Yala) National Park (block 1) is the most visited National Park (NP) in Sri Lanka and thousands of wildlife enthusiasts, both local and foreign, visit the NP annually. However, heavy traffic congestion inside the NP was identified as one of the major reasons for tourist discontent. Therefore, this study attempted to examine the views and at...

Asian Elephants have been revered for centuries and playing an important role in the continent's culture and religion where they habitat. Sri Lanka plays an important role in Asian elephant conservation in accommodating more than 10% of the global Asian elephant population in less than 2% of global Asian elephant range. Human-Elephant conflict (HEC...

The Public Health Inspector (PHI) is a vital member of the community health system in Sri Lanka. The importance of the duties of the PHI has increased even more with the introduction of the Primary Health Care system which forms the basis of the delivery of community health care in Sri Lanka. Environmental health, food safety and hygiene, control o...

Sri Lanka is a popular destination among tourists from all over the world and National parks in the country which harbor a rich biodiversity play a key role in this regard. The Ruhunu (Yala) National Park (NP) is the most visited NP in Sri Lanka with thousands of tourists; both local and foreign, visiting the park annually. The popularity of the NP...

Climate Change, an outcome of global warming is now universally recognized as the most significant human development challenge of the century. Due to the elevation of temperatures and rainfall it causes many adverse health impacts. One such health hazard is the increase of mosquito borne diseases as the mosquitoes are highly sensitive to climatic c...

Marine mammal watching is a sub-category of wildlife tourism and has shown continual growth as a global industry. Sri Lanka is an island nation in the south of the Indian Ocean with one of the busiest whale watching industries. Three locations in Sri Lanka provide facilities for marine mammal watching enthusiasts namely Mirissa in the south-west, T...

Secondhand Tobacco Smoke (SHS) is a serious public health problem, and different approaches were employed all over the world to overcome it. World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) introduced smoke free cities as an effective strategy to control SHS. The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol of Sri Lanka ha...

Wildlife tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism sectors worldwide and has been increasingly used to promote tourism in certain countries. With 26 national parks and 61 wildlife reserves covering 13% of its land surface area, Sri Lanka has a great potential to become one of the world's hotspots for wildlife tourism. However, in order to ensur...

Climate change is the main fundamental human development challenge of the 21st century. Sri Lanka is a developing island nation subject to tropical climate patterns; highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. High variability of rainfall patterns and increasing temperature experienced during the recent past in Sri Lanka could be one of the conseq...

Climate change which is the ultimate outcome of global warming is now universally recognized as the fundamental human development challenge of the 21st century. Impact of climate change include extremes in weather events and increase in the ambient temperatures. Among many adverse consequences, health impacts are also very significant. The impact o...

Although the overall smoking prevalence has shown a downward trend, second hand smoke (SHS) exposure remains a significant problem in Sri Lanka. Various attempts have been made to establish 'Smoke Free Zones' (SFZs) for combating SHS with the help of Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) who are regarded as the main coordinators of combating SHS at the g...

Sri Lanka is an island nation in the Indian Ocean; While the overall smoking prevalence has shown a downward trend second hand smoke (SHS) exposure remains a significant problem, despite recent laws prohibiting smoking in public places. The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol of Sri Lanka has initiated a national program of establishing ‘Toba...

Poultry is the most developed livestock sub sector in Sri Lanka which has shown a phenomenal growth over the past three decades. The highest number of the poultry farms in one district is located in Kurunegala district (19044). However, 74% of layer farms and 62% of broiler farms located in the district are small scale and rare less than 1000 chick...

Non availability of proper mechanism to segregate municipal solid waste makes the management more difficult in Sri Lanka. As an initial step of waste segregation all Municipal Councils in Sri Lanka were advised to segregate waste as biodegradable and non-biodegradable prior to collection effective November 01, 2016. This study explore the view and...

Tourism is a significant aspect of most ex-situ conservation establishments for Asian Elephants. We assessed reasons for visitor discontent in five highly visited establishments in Asia, by analysing on-line visitor comments. The proportion of negative reviews varied significantly between institutions. Ten reasons for visitor discontent were identi...

Whale-watching is one of the fastest-growing sectors of wildlife tourism in the world. The waters off Sri Lanka have been identified as important habitats for Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus); a species listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Coastal destinations of Mirissa in the south-west, Trincomalee in the north-eas...

This study attempted to explore the nature and prevalence of oil spill events in marine waters of Sri Lanka. The methodology used was based on literature review and Google Sri Lanka was used to search for related literature. The study found out five oil spill events during 1994 – 2016. Four of them were in Southern part of the island and one in Wes...

There are different approaches employed to control of tobacco use all over the world and the World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) advocates for smoke free cities as an effective tobacco-control strategy. The Ministry of Health and the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol commenced a specific program to...

Mangrove forests are extremely productive ecosystems that provide various good and services for the marine environment and people and the species diversity in mangroves is comparatively higher in Sri Lanka. Wide array of coastal wetland ecosystems in Sri Lanka harbors significant mangrove diversity and total number of 21 true mangrove species repor...

This study attempted to document the true mangrove diversity of this wetland complex, their direct uses, and conservation problems in order to emphasize the importance for conservation. It involved sampling of mangrove flora in five sampling sites and information on direct uses and conservation problems with regard to mangrove flora in the site was...

National Parks (NPs) based wildlife tourism is a significant component of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry with foreign visitations accounting for the larger share of income of NPs. However, current wildlife tourism practices based on NPs seem to be unsustainable, and cause bad tourism experiences, especially in the case of foreign visitors. This study...

Sanitary labours can be identified as one of marginal communities in Sri Lanka. State and private organizations outsource their sanitary and cleaning services. These services are provided by private service providers. Sanitary labours employ under them with minimum wages, facilities, and labour rights. The main objective of this study was to identi...

United Nations Inter - Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality defined Sexual harassment (SH) as an unwelcome sexual advance, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Seventy nine percent (79%) of victims are women globally and both men and women can be perpetrators. The objective of this study is to...

Non Communicable diseases (NCD) are the leading cause of death globally, of which 80% of deaths occur in low and middle income countries. In Sri Lankan context, the Non-Communicable Diseases accounted for approximately 70% of total deaths. Around 20,000 Sri Lankans die annually due to various health complications caused by the use of tobacco while...

Dengue is a viral infection transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. The global prevalence of dengue has increased dramatically in recent decades. Denguefever, dengue hemorrhagic fever, and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) occur in over 100 countries and threaten the health of more than 2.5 billion people in urban and peri-urban areas especially...

Smokeless tobacco is tobacco or a tobacco product that is used by means other than smoking which implies use of unburned tobacco in the finished products. These products are intended to be used orally, sucked, chewed, gargled or applied to the gums or tooth, while fire tobacco mixtures are usually inhaled into the nostrils. Chewing tobacco is a ris...

This study is based on foreign tourists visitations handled by the Muthurajawela Visitors’ Center (MVC) during the past eight years, 2008 to 2015, and the main objective is to identify the trends of foreign tourist arrivals over the study period. It will provide better understanding of the existing situation and of the future opportunities for the...

The majority of tourists visiting Sri Lanka are interested in observing elephants in the wild. Therefore the elephant is a key component of Sri Lankan tourism industry. However, elephants can also pose a danger to tourists. This study analyzed incidents of wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) attacks involving foreign tourists in the past three ye...

Climate change which is the ultimate outcome of global warming is now universally recognized as the fundamental human development challenge of the 21st century. Being a developing island nation subject to tropical climate patterns, Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Arthropods are exquisitely sensitive to climate. Throughout...

The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) is the main government institution responsible for protection and conservation of biodiversity, and prevention of commercial and other misuse of fauna, flora and their habitats in Sri Lanka. Officers of DWC are empowered to perform their duties under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, No.2 of 193...

World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) advocates for smoke free cities to use as an effective tobacco control strategy. Under the WHO-FCTC, National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Act, No. 27 of 2006 was enacted in Sri Lanka. There is an important provision on smoking in indoor places that includes smoking i...

‘Ali Ethun Samaga Jeevithaya’ Reviewed by Priyangwada Perera Ceylontoday, 2015-10-03 The book is evidence to a lot of hard work, research and investigative journalism. That is how I would start with the book of Supun Lahiru Prakash-Ali Ethun Samaga Jeevithaya. This has been an age old problem which got intensified in the last couple of years. Elep...