Stamp Bulletin No. 849 Commemorative Issue
August 22nd, 2014
Pigeon Island Marine National Park
First Day Covers
MNH Block of 4s
Sheetlets
Miniature Sheet
6 MNH Stamps
Block of 4 rock Pigeon
Block of 4 Sperm Whale
Block of 4 Blacktip Reef Shark
Block of 4 Blackwedged Butterflyfish
Block of 4 Scaly Rock Crab
Block of 4 Knotted Fan Coral & Emperor Angelfish
Sri Lanka enjoys eight times larger marine environment than its land area. This sea area is blessed with various types of marine resources. Coral reefs are undoubtedly one of them. They sometimes referred as rainforest or gardens of the ocean mainly due to its higher bio diversity and the ecosystem productivity. However, when considering the magnitude of coastal line of Sri Lanka the extent of reefs are limited to very few stretches, but it always retains its ecological and economic importance to the highest level possible.
Pigeon Island is one of the highly diverse, ecologically and socioeconomically important reef habitats located in Sri Lanka. In order to manage and conserve this fragile ecosystem, the island and the surrounding reef area was given the status of marine national Park by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. The park is located 272 km away from Colombo, 15 km North of Trincomalee and 1km off the coast of Nilaveli in Eastern Province. The National Park contains one of the best remaining coral reefs of Sri Lanka. The island was used as a shooting range during the colonial era. The name “Pigeon Island” was derived because of a wild strain of Blue Rock Pigeons (Columba Livia), who is restricted to this island listed under nationally threatened bird species ranked under critically endangered species. In order to protect and conserve this organism, the island was declared as a sanctuary in 1974. During this declaration, the adjacent sea area was not included into the sanctuary. Nevertheless, later in 2003, it was re-designated as a National Park by Department of Wildlife Conservation under the Flora and Fauna Ordinance Act, No.22 including the coral rich sea areas of the island. It is the 17th National Park in Sri Lanka. Moreover, it was cited in the IUCN directory of South Asian Protected areas and declared as a SAM (Special Area Management) area by Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Department of Sri Lanka. The Park boundary encompass with 471.4 hectare (out of which, 9ha. Within the land) including the surrounding sea of one mile radius around the island. At a glance, this island appears as one landform but virtually it consisted two islands as small and large landmasses with rocky outcrops. They are named as Large Pigeon Island, Small Pigeon Island and Salabalas Rocks (Salapilas Rocks). The large pigeon island is fringed by a coral reef, and is about 200m long and 100 m wide, with rocky outcrops, a rubble beach and a narrow sandy beach. Its highest point is 44.8m above mean sea level. The small pigeon island is surrounded by rocky islets. Salabalas rockys are rocky protrusions located in the park boundary. The reef environment is dominated mainly by branching Acropora spp. with some foliose Montipora, Ecinopora spp. in addition to the coral families such as Faviidae. Pocilloporidae, Mussidae and Poritidae present in higher abundance. Larger areas of soft corals such as Sinularia, Lobophyton, and Sarcophytn can also be observed in deeper areas of north and south ends of the Island. The framework of corals is riddled with plenty of species. The complex three-dimension nature of reef provides shelter and foraging sites for millions of other vertebrates and invertebrates. Many of the 100 species of corals and 300 coral reef fishes were recorded around the Trincomalee area are found within the national park boundary. Frequent sightings of Juvenile and adult black tip reef sharks (Charcharinus Melanopterus) are an intriguing view around the shallow coral areas. Pigeon island is home to a number of endangered and protected fish species such as Bicolor cleaner wrasse (Labroides Bicolor)(protected reef fish), Raggedfin Parrotfish (Chlorurus Rhakoura) (restricted to Sri Lanka), Humphead Wrasse (Cheilinus Unadulates) (globally endangered). In addition to that the Mellon Butterflyfish (Chaetodon Trifasciatus), black wedged buterflyfish (Chaetodon Falcula), Moorish Idon (zanclus cornutus), Blue ringed Angelfish (Pomacanthus Annularis), Emperor Angelfish (Pomacnthus Imperator) add extremely rich colors to the reef environment of the island. Hasksbill turtle (Eretmochelys Imbricata), green turtle (Chelonia Mydas), Loggerhead (Caretta Caretta), Leatherback (Dermochelys Coriacea) and Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys Oivacea) are the visiting sea turtles of the coral reefs and the surrounding sandy beach. However, the island and the surrounding marine ecosystem at present under various influences of environmental and anthropogenic orient. Impacts caused by Crown-of-Thorns (COT) Starfish (Acanthaster Planch), fast growing sea algae (Halemeda and Caulerpa), thermal stress and fungal attacks are accelerating at an alarming rate. Due to its fascinating beauty, Pigeon Island is one of a fun spot in Sri Lanka favor visitors as a bathing beach and a snorkeling and scuba diving site. Tourism related activities such as snorkeling, diving, bathing, boat movements and fisheries related activities such as usage of non-sustainable fishing methods such as dynamiting and ornamental fish collection are common in the area. All these trigger chronic stress conditions that can ultimately contribute to the degradation of the ecosystem within the Pigeon Island National Park. Hence, wise and prudent use and management of resources such as banning of reef walking, controlling of boat movements, restriction of bathing activities, zonation of reef system, organizing of regular cleanups of invasive species, collection proper disposal of solid waste originated at the island, periodic monitoring and surveys would be suggested as immediate reef protection and management interventions. |
| * Date of Issue : 22nd August, 2014 * Denomination : Rs. 7, Rs. 10, Rs. 15, Rs.25, Rs. 35, Rs. 50 * Stamp Designer : Sudath Jayawardena * Stamp Size : 41mm * 30mm * Format : Horizontal * Printing Process : Offset Lithography * Sheet Composition : 20 stamps per sheet * Perforation : 13 1/2 * 14 * Printers : Department of Government Printing, Sri Lanka * Color : 4 Process Colors * Paper : 102 gsm security stamp paper * Gum : PVA |
* Quantity Printed : Rs. 7 - 2,000,000 Rs. 10 - 2,000,000 Rs. 15 - 2,000,000 Rs. 25 - 1,000,000 Rs. 35 - 2,000,000 Rs. 50 - 1,000,000 Souvenir Sheets : 25,000 * Text by : Dr. P.B. Terney Pradeep Kumara(Ph.D) Kushani Dissanayake, Piyumi Guruge * Photo Credit : B. Dayaratne * Last Date of Sale : 21st August, 2015 |
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