YZA Youth conservators
Nipuni WIMALAPALA
Being the most intelligent creature of nature, human beings have a
responsibility to protect the environment, which is vital for their
survival. It is a fact that human beings must understand that nature is
not their property to do whatever they please, but belongs to everyone
who lives in it. Conservation should come as a habit rather than a sense
of duty.
There have been many nature conservation organizations in Sri Lanka,
especially as ‘conservation’ has become a popular subject of late. Among
them, the Young Zoologists’ Association (YZA), a non-governmental,
non-profit, voluntary youth organization based at the National
Zoological Gardens, Dehiwala plays a vital role in conservation.
‘Lets protect nature’ is the vision believe and work towards. The
majority of the organization consists of students and undergraduates.
All of them are great nature lovers under the age group of 35.
There are two sections - junior and senior sections - in the
organization. The junior section consists of children below the age of
12. The senior section includes those above 12, up to 35. All of them
are young, enthusiastic and dedicated to conservation of nature.
According to the President of Young Zoologists’ Association, K S
Deepankara de Silva, the YZA is completely dedicated to conservation of
nature. In an interview with Daily News Punch he revealed that the
organization was started 39 years ago.
Located within the Dehiwala Zoo, the association conduct study
sessions under several groups, such as mammals, reptiles, aquatic and
flora.
Committees
There are five major committees in the association, namely Education
Committee, Public Relations Committee, Publication Committee, Research
Committee and Environmental Action Committee.
Education Committee organizes educational programmes and handles the
five groups of study. It is responsible for organizing the annual exam
for all five groups as well.
Public Relations Committee coordinates activities with branch
organizations and conducts educational programmes for the public and
conducts lectures in schools.
Publication Committee is involved in publishing informative
publications of YZA which help increase awareness of the public. The
Research Committee is the corner-stone of YZA which contributes much to
reach its ultimate target of nature conservation.
Environmental Action Committee plays the major role of carrying out
ground work of conservation programmes, such as handling campaigns,
protests and movements, explained the President of YZA, Deepankara de
Silva.
Activities
According to him, the Young Zoologists’ Association organizes many
programmes and activities in order to achieve their target of nature
conservation. This involves educating the public. “We hold seminars,
workshops, lectures, environmental days, education days to promote our
goal and to convince people that we are responsible for protecting
nature,” said Deepankara de Silva.
YZA holds classes on every Sunday at the zoo and people who are
interested in learning about nature or nature conservation are welcome
to take part. These classes help increase their knowledge. Annual
education day is another significant event.
A member feeding an eagle |
Anybody in there? |
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| Children
petting a python at the Pet corner |
“Another programme which was recently held was, the anti polythene
programme at Adam’s peak. It was an environmental friendly programme
which convinced people that polythene is harmful to nature.” YZA
actively participated in the exhibition held on Poson Poya in
Anuradhapura, which was organized by the Wild Life Department. YZA’s
stall was entirely about snakes.
Pet Corner
Another successful event, Public Relations Day was held recently in
Nuwara Eliya and they hope to hold the next one in Gampaha within the
year.
“The student guide service conducted by the YZA at the Dehiwala Zoo
is very useful for young students who go to see animals,” said the
President Deepankara de Silva.
“We have also introduced a Pet Corner where children can pet baby
animals, which is an exciting experience for them.” Young ones can come
across monkeys, reptiles and birds in the Pet Corner.
Apart from it, YZA supports the Zoo in holding animal shows such as,
elephant shows and snake shows.
These shows take place every Saturday and Sunday.
“YZA holds lectures at school level to emphasize the importance of
nature conservation and our responsibility towards it,” said Deepankara
de Silva.
They do researches in national botanical gardens in order to find out
new methods to conserve nature. “Basically the YZA work in parallel to
the Zoo,” noted Deepankara.
Naturalist
YZA publishes a journal called, Naturalist which help reader to
understand the value of nature. Presently they are planning to hold an
island wide snake identification programme, especially in areas like,
Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Ampara. As Deepankara de Silva stated, the
Dehiwala Zoo has helped to upgrade the condition of the Association.
The young enthusiastic director of the Zoo, Bhashwara Gunaratne is
dedicated to the subject and gives his helping hand to the YZA. It takes
part in many activities conducted by the National Zoological Gardens,
Dehiwala.
The President of YZA, Deepankara de Silva is quite confident that
they contribute much to the process of nature conservation, and they are
involved in convincing the public about its importance. “We depend on
nature and its our ultimate responsibility to let it remain natural.” |
