Coastal Environmental centre for Kalpitiya
Sandasen MARASINGHE
A Coastal Environmental Centre has been established in Kalpitiya for
providing facilities for the local and foreign tourists to observe the
Kalpitiya coastal area rich with natural resources.
The Kalpitiya Coastal Environmental Centre that initiated its
construction in 2007 by the Coast Conservation Department was completed
in 2009 at a cost of Rs 11.8 million under the Mahinda Chintanaya
program and was declared open by the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
Minister Felix Perera.
The centre would provide a lot of facilities for schoolchildren,
students engaged in higher education and tertiary education and
naturalists to observe the Kalpitiya coastal area enriched with
economic, social, cultural and educational resources and gathering
knowledge needed for their studies and thesis. The centre would provide
knowledge on the environmental importance of the Kalpitiya area, coastal
eco-systems and educate people of the hazards arisen from the
environmental issues in the area and conducting lectures to Government
and other institutions. It would also provide accommodation facilities.
One of the most significant natural resources in the Kalpitiya
Coastal area is the Bar Coral Reefs just offshore. It has the greatest
bio-diversity of any coral reef in the waters around India and is one of
the few pristine coral reef systems in the country.
It is a complex of reefs which stretch parallel to the coast from the
northern end of the Kalpitiya peninsula to the islands which separate
Portugal Bay from Mannar.
It has high ecological, biological and aesthetic significance, being
home to 136 species of coral and 283 species of fish. The Bar Reef was
declared a marine sanctuary in 1992, the area of the reserve being 307
square kilometers.
Other significant features of the Kalpitiya coastal area, islands
like Battalangunduwa, Mohottuwarama and Palliyawatta, the mangrove
habitats and the small islands in the lagoon consisted of endemic
vegetation. |