Saving the Sirens of the Sea

Once an abundant populace, Sri Lanka’s dugong population is on the brink of extinction due to many pressures including habitat fragmentation and hunting. To help conserve and protect these species Dilmah Conservation undertook a large scale investigation on the current populations in Eastern Sri Lanka which unearthed promising baseline information for future research. A questionnaire survey was conducted in collaboration with several partners including International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Sri Lanka Country Office, Convention on Migratory Species of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Sri Lanka, which will eventually lead to the core area occupied by Dugong in Sri Lanka to be demarcated and declared a marine sanctuary.