Poisonous and beautiful, they may soon vanish by L.B.Senaratne
The possibility of the amphibian and reptile population being wiped out from both the Knuckles Range and Horton Plains is a reality that we cannot ignore, warned herpetologist, Anslem de Silva, at a presentation on 'Reptiles of Sri Lanka' held at the Alliance de Francaise auditorium in Kandy recently.
He said that his findings would be sent to the Wildlife Department and the Forest Department. Anslem de Silva commenced his herpetological career in 1959 as a young student of St. Servatius' College and and later joined the University of Peradeniya working at
the Department of Community Medicine. Later, he was awarded an M.Sc from the same university. He is presently the chairman of the declining Amphibian Population Task Force of the World Conservation Union, Sri Lanka branch.
The most beautiful of the reptiles in Sri Lanka is 'mal sara' while the most dangerous is the krait. The most primitive Sri Lankan reptile is the 'kaluwakatulla' or the Gray's Earth Snake. Then there is the 'pala polanga' or Pit Viper, dangerous yet beautiful.
According to Anslem de Silva, amphibians and reptiles of Sri Lanka did not have vernacular names except far and few that have documented or coined by Deraniyagla and a few others.
He said that the early observation of reptiles and amphibians in Sri Lanka many have originated with pre-historic Balangaoda man. Early evidence of snakes, lizards and many other animals suggest that reptiles were used as food. According to Deraniyagla,
he said, ancient people ate python flesh.
From these observations, it has been been assumed that early inhabitants made observations and learnt to distinguish snakes- those that cause illness, death and those that did not.
It is of interest to note, said Mr. de Silva, that in the 'Mappa Mundi' drawn by Richard de Bello in about 1200 AD and now at Hereford Cathedral in Britian, Sri Lanka is represented by two dragons possibly due the abundance of crocodiles at that time.
Between the fourth and 18th centuries AD, nearly 70 works dealing with different aspects of medicine were wrtten in Sri Lanka, said Mr. de Silva. Some of these books include a chapter on ' agada tantra ' or toxicology and they describe treatment for the bites of many reptiles and for venom. For example, he said that 'Bhaisajja Manjusa' written in 1247 AD and 'Yogarnavaya' written by the principal of Mayrapdaa 1276 AD, prescribes treatment for bites by snakes, frogs and skinks. There may have been many ola leaf manuscripts which dealt exclusively with snake bites. However only two books written about two centuries ago on snake bite treatment have survived- 'Vakirigala sarpa veda pota' and 'Sarpa veda pota' . These works are important as they indicate that more or less the same reptiles were considered venomous then as now.
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