Sri Lanka

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Supreme Court orders $1 bn payment for X-Press Pearl disaster

By / / Good News For Humankind

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has issued a landmark verdict, ordering the owners, operators, and local agents of the MV X-Press Pearl to pay $1 billion in compensation for the catastrophic marine disaster off Colombo in 2021. The Singapore-flagged ship caught fire and sank, releasing billions of plastic nurdles and toxic chemicals, ruining marine ecosystems and coastal livelihoods. The court upheld the “polluter pays” principle and mandated the creation of an independent compensation commission, with the first instalment due by September 23, 2025. This judgment sets a powerful precedent for environmental justice and accountability in the Global South.

Leopard

Sri Lanka’s Kumana National Park emerges as a stronghold for vulnerable leopards

By / / Good news links

A new study reports a notably high density of Sri Lankan leopards in the country’s Kumana National Park. Using camera traps, the study recorded more than 90 leopard encounters, including 34 identified individual leopards, captured on film across a 16-month survey period. Since 2017, a citizen science program has also recorded 80 individual leopards in Kumana, using a naming system to identify each individual. The Sri Lankan leopard is tagged as a species “vulnerable” to extinction, according to the IUCN Red List criteria.