Opinion
REMEMBERING NAVODA
February 2024 marks six months since Navoda Edirisinghe – ‘Navo’ to her friends at Peradeniya – slipped away in the early hours of the morning. In her brief life, she had endeared herself to many outside her immediate family – her school community, the university, and her work colleagues in different spheres of activity and institutions – among others. It is not easy to accept that she is gone, except through conscious remembrance; one is almost prone to start texting her asking ‘how are things?’
I first encountered Navoda in the Department of Economics and Statistics at the University of Peradeniya where I worked and she was a second year student specializing in Economics. As I got to know her better over time, I found beneath her polite, earnest and shy demeanor, a person capable of hard, consistent effort, with a kind-hearted, caring, fun-loving nature.
My interactions with her revolved around department work, both during her student days and when she worked as a Temporary Lecturer. While initially shy of taking on a public role, she was game to try out compering, and went through a practice session with me before doing a very good job of it. As a leader of discussion classes in courses I taught, she kept meticulous records and proved conscientious and responsible.
When I was away on leave, she provided excellent research assistance in unearthing important articles for me. Her ‘crowning glory’ of sacrificial work for the Department was probably providing secretarial assistance for the annual research symposium ‘PIERS’. I remember her working day in and day out – sometimes into the night – disregarding the strain on her eyes.
During her time as a Temporary Lecturer, she was part of a bunch of young colleagues who enjoyed life – putting in the hours of work, but always ready for a respite. The latter included occasional forays to a milk bar close by, in which I sometimes joined. At the bar she was part of a small group who tended to ‘over consume’ the treacle supplied with curd, to the chagrin of the others!
And as her colleagues left for other pastures over time, she continued with these visits, referring to herself as my ‘milk bar partner’ in a message to a celebratory volume compiled by my family for my birthday.
When her appointment at Peradeniya was nearing its end, she shared with me her preparations for an application to join the National Human Resources Development Council, including slides to present at an interview. These carried the hallmark of meticulous and thoughtful preparation, and she was recruited there, serving several years and holding the post of Research Officer at the time of her passing.
Along with this shift to Colombo, her communications gradually became infrequent, and I found her working at any time of the day, at office or at home! She tended to catch up to share important milestones – the final of which was her graduating with an MBA – or to ask a work-related question. And though these interactions reveal the serious and dedicated side of her nature, she was always ready for a laugh.
In these communications, I discovered that she was not only into developing human resources-related activities, but was also continuing with other assignments she had taken on earlier. She was in touch with some of my colleagues, tapping their expertise and producing high quality outcomes in tasks she was entrusted with. Few and far between though these updates were, they reinforced in me what I had known for some years; that Navoda was a committed professional.
So when I look back at the years and ponder on the meaning of her life, I’m grateful for having known her. I travel back, as it were to the past, and see different moments as they impacted on her; some challenging, and others joyful. I see her earnestly requesting leave from the university as a student to travel to India for medical attention, and I see anxiety on her face in dealing with her father’s accident at home.
I see her playing games with great competitive enthusiasm during a stay-over with her colleagues at my home, having fun in visiting relatives in Matara, making a trip in joining me along with a friend to attend the wedding of a former colleague in Galle, sharing pictures celebrating her different graduations, and making plans for further study.
I remember her as a loyal friend to her work colleagues at Peradeniya, always willing to help out, and joining in at social events. Hers was a life of quality, shockingly cut short, and she will be missed for all time. Surely she is among the stars which fill the night sky, her spirit never extinguished, but ever joyful and ever rejoicing.
CRA
The first and only tsunami that Sri Lanka experienced was on Boxing Day(26th) of December 2004. My wife and I, as usual, went down to Modara in Moratuwa to purchase our seafood requirements of seafood from our familiar fishmonger, Siltin, from whom we had been buying fish for a long time. Sometimes we used to take a couple of friends of ours. But on this day, it was only both of us that went on this trip.
We made our purchases and were returning home and when we came up to the Dehiwala bridge, many people were looking down at the canal from both sides of the bridge. This was strange, as normally if there was something unusual, it would be on one side.
Anyway, we came home unaware of anything that had happened. A school friend of mine (sadly he is no longer with us) telephoned me and asked whether I was aware of what had happened. When I answered him in the negative, he told me to switch on the TV and watch. Then when I did so and saw what was happening, I was shocked. But still I did not know that we had just managed to escape being swept away by the tsunami.
Later, when I telephoned Siltin and asked him, he said that both of us had a narrow escape. Soon after we had left in our car, the tsunami had invaded the shore with a terrifying wave and taken away everything of the fishmongers, including their stalls, the fish, weighing scales and money. The fishmongers had managed to run to safety.
This had been about five minutes after we had left. So, it was a narrow shave to have escaped the wrath of the demining tsunami( the name many Sri Lankans came to know after it hit our island very badly}
HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE
Sri Lanka has recorded a staggering 375 elephant deaths in the past eleven and a half months due to a multitude of causes, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation. U. L Thaufeeq, Deputy Director – Elephant Conservation said the deaths include 74 from gunshots, 53 from electrocution, 49 from hakka patas (explosive devices hidden in food), seven from poisoning, 10 from train accidents, three from a road accident, and six by drowning. It makes such diabolical reading!
“The causes of other deaths are due to natural causes or causes that could not be identified. Most of the elephants that died were young,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the human-elephant conflict has also taken a toll on people, with 149 human deaths reported this year.
Accordingly, human-elephant conflict has resulted in 524 deaths of both elephants and humans in 2024.
In 2023, a total of 488 elephants and 184 people have died consequent to the conflict, according to Wildlife Department statistics.
The human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka has escalated to unprecedented levels with reasons like habitat destruction, encroachment, and the lack of sustainable coexistence measures contributing to the issue.
This is an indictment of the Wildlife Department for just giving the sad yearly statistics of shocking losses of our National treasures !
Given the fact that Sri Lanka boasts of 29.9% of the country declared as protected forests, Sri Lanka is a haven for nature lovers. Boasting 26 national parks, 10 nature reserves including 3 strict nature reserves, and 61 sanctuaries, the national parks in Sri Lanka offer an incredible variety of wildlife experiences.
Taken in that context, the million dollar question is why on earth the Wildlife Department is not being proactive to capture these magnificent animals and transport them into protected sanctuaries, thus effectively minimising dangers to villagers ?
Being a Buddhist country primarily, to turn a blind eye to these avoidable tragic deaths to mankind and wild elephants, we should be ashamed !
As a practising Buddhist myself, I think our clergy could play a major part in calling upon the Wildlife Department to get their act together sooner rather than later to protect human elephant conflicts !
Sri Lanka being a favourite destination amongst foreign tourists, they are bound to take a dim view of what is happening on the ground!
If the top brass in the responsible department are not doing their job properly, may be there is a case for the new President to intervene before it gets worse!
All animal lovers hope and pray the New Year will usher in a well coordinated plan of action put in place to ensure the well being of wildlife and villagers !
Sunil Dharmabandhu
Wales, UK
This has reference to the article from the Aircraft Owners and Operators Sri Lanka, titled ‘Closer look at regulatory oversight and its impact on Tourism’, published on Tuesday, 24th December 2024.To explain further, in the beginning there was the Air Navigation Act No 15 of 1950 which was followed by the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) of 1955. This was long before the national airline had acquired pressurised aircraft, intercontinental jets, sophisticated navigation equipment, satellite communication and automatic landing systems, and ‘glass’ flight-deck instrumentation.
Today, civil aviation in Sri Lanka is governed by Civil Aviation Act Number 14 of 2010. Yet the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) promulgated back in 1955 remain in force.
These outdated regulations still stipulate rules forbidding the carriage of passengers on the airplane’s wings or undercarriage (landing gear). In short, they are neither practical nor user-friendly. In contrast, the Air Navigation Regulations of other countries have progressed and are easy to read, understand, and implement.
To overcome the problem of outdated regulations, as an interim measure in 1969 the then Minister of Communications and Transport, Mr E.L.B. Hurulle issued a Government Gazette notification declaring that the Standard and Recommended Procedures (SARPs) in Annexes to the ICAO Convention signed by Ceylon in 1944 shall be made law.
Even so, nothing much was done to move with the times until updating of the Civil Aviation Act 14 of 2010, while the Air Navigation Regulations remained unchanged since 1955. However, these regulations were modified from time to time by the promulgation of Implementing Standards (IS) and General Directives (GDs) which were blindly ‘cut and pasted’ by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL), from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Annexe ‘SARPS’ without much thought given. To date there are literally 99 IS’s starting from 2010.
The currently effective air navigation regulations are not in one document like the rest of the world, but all over the place and difficult for the flying public to follow as they are not regularly updated. This sad situation seems to have been noticed by the current regime.
The National Tourism Policy of the ruling NPP states, “Domestic air operations are currently limited due to high cost and regulatory restrictions. The current regulatory and operational environment will be reviewed to ensure domestic air connectivity to major tourist destinations. The potential of operating a domestic air schedule with multiple operators is proposed. Additionally, domestic airports and water aerodromes in potential key areas will be further developed, for high-end tourism growth.”
“The tourism policy recognises Sri Lanka’s potential to develop Sri Lanka’s aviation-based specialised tourism products, including fun flying, hot air ballooning, paragliding, parachuting and skydiving, and scenic seaplane operations. To facilitate the growth of these niche markets, existing regulations will be reviewed with the aim of attracting capable investors to develop and operate these offerings.”
It remains to be seen whether the NPP government lives up to those promises.
Note:
That OPA report talks of two funds: ‘Connectivity’ and ‘Viability’ for a limited period like three or five years to help jump-start the domestic aviation industry.
The ‘Connectivity Fund’ will cap the seat price for local passengers to a more affordable value to destinations while the ‘Viability Fund’ will assume that all seats are occupied and compensate the operator for any unutilised seat. The intention is to popularise domestic aviation as a safe, quick and convenient mode of transport.
Capt. Gihan A Fernando
RCyAF/ SLAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, Singapore Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.
Now A Fun Flier
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