Public Relations and Education Day of the Young Zoologists’ Association of Sri Lanka (YZA) was celebrated recently with a series of events to create awareness among the public of the importance of protecting the environment.
Since YZA is a non-governmental, non-profit, voluntary youth organisation with Its core value to protect and conserve the environment by making a conscious effort in educating the community in Sri Lanka, Public Relation Day is an important occasion to educate schoolchildren on the importance of protecting the environment and conservation practices.
Additional preparations were done this year to celebrate the day with much pomp and grandeur. A series of lectures and activities organised with the help of experts and pioneers in the field of wildlilfe were held with the participation of schoolchildren across the Colombo district including 25 national schools.
The welcome address and introduction to the organisation was made by YZA President, Ishanda Senevirathna. A lecture on the importance of biodiversity was delivered by the main instructor of Mammals group (YZA), Pubudu Weerarathna. Recent threats to biodiversity of Sri Lanka were analysed and ways to overcome them were discussed to promote students to further research regarding these issues and act to prevent harms on biodiversity when needed.
An awareness session on the snakes of Sri Lanka was conducted by Mahesh de Silva. Live snake specimens were brought to the premises and snake identification and safe handling in the wild were taught intending snake conservation.
