Coastal Environmental centre for Kalpitiya

A Coastal Environmental Centre has been established in Kalpitiya for providing facilities for the local and foreign tourists to observe the Kalpitiya coastal area rich with natural resources.
The Kalpitiya Coastal Environmental Centre that initiated its construction in 2007 by the Coast Conservation Department was completed in 2009 at a cost of Rs 11.8 million under the Mahinda Chintanaya program and was declared open by the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Felix Perera.
The centre would provide a lot of facilities for schoolchildren, students engaged in higher education and tertiary education and naturalists to observe the Kalpitiya coastal area enriched with economic, social, cultural and educational resources and gathering knowledge needed for their studies and thesis. The centre would provide knowledge on the environmental importance of the Kalpitiya area, coastal eco-systems and educate people of the hazards arisen from the environmental issues in the area and conducting lectures to Government and other institutions. It would also provide accommodation facilities.
One of the most significant natural resources in the Kalpitiya Coastal area is the Bar Coral Reefs just offshore. It has the greatest bio-diversity of any coral reef in the waters around India and is one of the few pristine coral reef systems in the country.
It is a complex of reefs which stretch parallel to the coast from the northern end of the Kalpitiya peninsula to the islands which separate Portugal Bay from Mannar.
It has high ecological, biological and aesthetic significance, being home to 136 species of coral and 283 species of fish. The Bar Reef was declared a marine sanctuary in 1992, the area of the reserve being 307 square kilometers.
Other significant features of the Kalpitiya coastal area, islands like Battalangunduwa, Mohottuwarama and Palliyawatta, the mangrove habitats and the small islands in the lagoon consisted of endemic vegetation.
Courtesy :www.dailynews.lk