Some of coral reefs battered, others untouched by tsunami

The tsunamis which smashed into Sri Lanka in December last year battered some of the island's famed coral reefs to bits but left others untouched, environmentalists say.









The tsunamis which smashed into Sri Lanka in December last year battered some of the island's famed coral reefs to bits but left others untouched, environmentalists say. Based on a preliminary survey carried out recently of eastern and northeastern Sri Lanka, some reefs have been badly broken and may take years to recover, said Udaya Lingane, consultant for the Green Movement of Sri Lanka non-governmental organisation.

Others, however, have escaped virtually unscathed, he said.

Lingane and two other members of the Norwegian-funded NGO travelled along the coast from Panama in the east up to Oluvil in the northeast studying the environmental impact of the December 26 tsunamis, which killed close on 31,000 Sri Lankans and initially left around a million homeless.

"We found that in parts the coral reef was badly damaged but in other parts it seems to have not been touched," Lingane said.

The reef between the towns of Passikudah and Kalkudah, north of the main town of Batticaloa, for example, h