Human-wildlife conflicts are an increasing problem as human land use encroaches on wildlife habitats. Augmenting farmers' crops with orange trees through Project Orange Elephant has proven to be a simple and effective method for mitigating human-elephant conflicts in Sri Lanka. Similar endeavours could be applied elsewhere in the world. The problem The association between man and elephant in Sri Lanka is ancient and dates back nearly 5000 years. The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), being the largest terrestrial herbivore on the island, naturally requires large and diverse habitats to survive. With human expansion comes land modification, unfortunately to the detriment of elephants. The need of land for human use is an ongoing encroachment of the existing elephant habitat which is being diminished continuously and drastically. As a result, Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) is escalating every year in frequency and intensity. Annually~250 elephants and~80 people are killed due to HEC. Agriculture is the primary rural industry and rice is the staple food in Sri Lanka. Most rice cultivators are small-scale farmers and they are the people who suffer frequently from HEC. These farmers are hampered by poor economies and financial services, limited technology, fragmented landholding, and pre and post-harvest losses, and HEC. Conflict with elephants continue to increase due to inefficient landscape-level planning and land-use practices that are incompatible to coexisting with elephants. Currently, there are very few efforts to develop solutions to resolve the livelihood and environmental concerns resulting due to the negative interactions of agriculture and elephants. Since HEC being a result of agriculture-based land used practices incompatible with elephants, a large part of the solution to mitigate HEC must be based on the introduction of innovative land-use practices.
Arsenic is a highly toxic metalloid that forms different chemical states in nature, including arsenate and arsenite, as common inorganic forms. Exposure to arsenic may cause adverse effects on human health and the environment. Therefore, the detection of arsenic is critical. Exploring new approaches with low detection ranges and high sensitivity is crucial. This review paper consists of optical methods, including colorimetric and fluorometric methods, which detect arsenite and arsenate. Initially proposed colorimetric approaches such as the Gutzeit and molybdenum blue method can easily to use. However, the production of toxic substances limits their applications. Later, structurally modified molecules, nanoparticle-based assays, and their modifications are used for arsenic detection. Fluorometric methods also have noticeable attention to arsenic detection. Fluorescent approaches reported in this paper are based on semiconductor nanomaterials, other nanomaterials, and their modifications, etc. In addition, arsenate's catalytic and inhibitory activity on enzyme activity can be used to detect arsenic through colorimetric and fluorometric methods. This review highlighted the advantages, disadvantages, comparisons, and uses of colorimetric and fluorometric methods in detecting arsenite and arsenate.
Background: Sparganosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Plerocercoid larvae (spargana) of the genus Spirometra. We aimed to provide molecular evidence for the infection of amphibians with Spirometra sp. in the inside and outside of Horton Plains National Park (HPNP), Sri Lanka. Methods: The prevalence of sparganum infection in wild frogs (Truga eques and Minverya agricola) was investigated in the inside and outside of HPNP from June 2019 to April 2021.A total of 1,434 Amphibians samples were surveyed to examine the spargana infection from the study site. To identify the species identity of the collected spargana, a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene and nuclear 18S rRNA gene were amplified, sequenced, and analyzed. Results: A total of 539 infected amphibians (T. eques and M. agricola) samples were examined to survey from the study area. Spargana were detected in all dissected specimens belonging to the species Spirometra erinaceieuropaei that were genetically confirmed using the evolutionary conserved nuclear 18S rRNA gene and then compared to the GenBank deposit, indicating that S. erinaceieuropaei is the primary causal agent of sparganosis both inside and outside the HPNP. Conclusion: Our finding is the first genetically confirmed record of S. erinaceieuropaei in amphibians in South Asia. However, further studies are needed to investigate the prevalence of sparagna infection in amphibians all over the island.
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