Second edition of ‘Snakes of Sri Lanka’ hits bookshelves after nearly 17 years

By Ifham Nizam

The second edition of ‘Snakes of Sri Lanka’ by Dr. Ruchira Somaweera, Sanoj Wijayasekara and Sanjaya Bandara is now available. This 400-page book is the most comprehensive field guide written in Sinhala about any group of animals to-date. It has entered the market nearly 17 years after the launch of Snakes of Sri Lanka authored by Dr. Ruchira Somaweera in 2006.Dr. Somaweera says that Sri Lanka is one the countries worst affected by the human-snake conflict. An estimated 80,000 people get bitten by snakes in Sri Lanka, annually, and of an estimated 400 lose their lives.

“This is a huge number. On the other hand, due to fear and poor knowledge, hundreds of thousands of snakes (mostly non-venomous and non-dangerous species) are killed by humans, threatening their populations. Simultaneously, the Sri Lankan government spends over USD 10 million, a year, treating snake-bite patients and importing the relevant snake antivenin, making it an immense economic burden for a struggling economy,” he says, adding that education, especially at school and community level, could play a significant role in reducing this conflict. “To aid an upcoming set of educational campaigns, I am on a mission to donate 250 copies of our latest book on Sri Lankan snakes to school and community libraries in districts most affected by the snake-human conflict,” he added.

He also said that the book is the most comprehensive book written in a local language on the subject to-date, and have illustrated sections on how to identify snakes, telling apart venomous and non-venomous snakes, instructions on minimising snake bites and what to do in case of snake bites, etc., in formats understandable to the public and students.

The second edition includes detailed species accounts for all the 108 species of snakes recorded from Sri Lanka. The first edition had 98 species.
More than 450 images showcasing colour variations of each species and identification features, illustrated, easy to use keys for identifying members of each genera, special section on “look alike snake identification”, over 50 pages of introduction to the ecology, history, conservation, etc., of snakes of Sri Lanka and special chapters on venom, phylogenetics and morphometrics of Sri Lankan snakes, written by subject matter experts, are some of the key features of the second edition.

Dr. Somaweera, a National Geographic Explorer and a Scientist based in Australia, will be here to launch the book.
He is a herpetologist and evolutionary biologist with a broad research interest in reptiles. He completed his honours degree at the University of Peradeniya, then his PhD at the University of Sydney; he received a postdoctoral fellowship, and was later appointed as a Research Scientist at Australia’s National Science Agency, CSIRO.

His research subjects range from sea snakes in the Indian Ocean to crocodiles in the remote Kimberley outback of Australia to reptiles of Indonesian islands and the human-snake conflict in Sri Lanka. His integrative approach combines field research, social surveys and computer-based modelling to provide insights into the adaptive significance of these reptiles to the changes in their environment, including those from urbanization, invasive species and climate change.

Dr. Somaweera’s work has led to over 50 scientific papers, five books on reptiles, several children’s and citizen science publications, and has been showcased nationally and internationally. Currently, he is the Practice Lead for Ecology and a Principal Scientist at Stantec Australia, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. As a National Geographic Explorer, he is also actively involved in inspiring the public and the next generation of biologists on wildlife and nature conservation.