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The Department of Wildlife Conservation has taken steps to construct additional ponds in Yala National Park to provide drinking water for wild animals affected by the prevailing drought.

Yala Park Warden A.T.R. Ravindra said existing ponds and water holes are also being restored as part of the effort to address the shortage of water.

He said water is being transported from the Menik Ganga by bowsers to fill the ponds and water holes inside the park.

Meanwhile, herds of wild elephants from forest reserves in Okkampitiya and Maligawila have been visiting the Illukpitiya Tank day and night in search of water.

However, the tank has now run dry, leaving only a muddy pool in its centre.

Authorities said water sources across the forests have dried up due to the prevailing drought, leaving wild animals among the worst affected.

Sri Lanka recorded a significant widening of its merchandise trade deficit to USD 6.5 billion during the first seven months of 2026, driven by a surge in motor vehicle and fuel import costs.

Official economic data for the period ending July 2026 underscores how sharp increases in import expenditure alongside lower export revenues have strained the national trade balance.

Fuel imports remained a major contributor to the growing trade gap, with cumulative spending rising 59.9 percent year on year to reach USD 3.622 billion between January and July 2026.

Monthly fuel import costs stood at USD 453 million in July, representing a 68 percent jump compared to July 2025 due to higher crude oil purchases, despite a slight decline from the USD 465 million recorded in June.

Motor vehicle imports for both commercial and personal use reached USD 241 million in July, bringing the seven-month total for vehicle imports to USD 1.495 billion.

The widened trade deficit of USD 6.5 billion contrasts sharply with the USD 3.9 billion reported during the same period in 2025.

Despite these import pressures, gross official reserves reached USD 6.6 billion by the end of July 2026, supported by Central Bank foreign exchange purchases and an ongoing swap facility with the People's Bank of China.

Financial markets reflected this volatility as the Sri Lankan rupee depreciated 5.5 percent against the US dollar by late August 2026, though recent monetary, fiscal, and macroprudential measures have prompted a slight rebound in currency values.

A Sri Lankan-origin Australian couple and their two young sons are among dozens of Australians still missing after catastrophic floods devastated areas along the Nepal-Tibet border, according to Australian media reports.

Chandrasekaran Muralitharan, 47, his wife, Shylaja Muralitharan, 42, and their sons Ashwin, 14, and Aarush, 11, were travelling with a Himalayan Glacier Adventures group when contact with them was lost.

The family lives in northwestern Sydney. Chandrasekaran is originally from Kopay in Jaffna, while he and his wife are first-generation Sri Lankan migrants to Australia, according to reports from Sri Lankan and Australian media. Their two sons were born into the Australian Tamil diaspora.

The family was on a pilgrimage to the Mount Kailash region when the floods struck on August 26.

Relatives said their last contact with the family came on the morning of the disaster. They were preparing to have breakfast before travelling toward the border for immigration formalities, ABC News reported.

Their family was unable to reach them after that call as floods and landslides destroyed roads, electricity supplies and communications across large parts of the affected region.

The Muralitharans were travelling with a tour group that included 15 Australians. Members of the group were believed to have been near Rasuwagadhi, close to the Nepal-China border, when the disaster struck.

Australian authorities said Monday that 43 Australians remained unaccounted for following the floods. Many were pilgrims travelling through Nepal toward Tibet to visit Mount Kailash.

The wider disaster has become one of the deadliest Himalayan floods in recent years.

For relatives of the Muralitharan family, however, attention remains focused on finding the four missing family members.

Shylaja's sister told Australian media that relatives were continuing to seek information from authorities and the tour operator while hoping the family had managed to reach safety.

Reports said the pilgrimage had been particularly important to Shylaja and that the family had spent considerable time preparing for the journey.

The family's Sri Lankan roots have also drawn attention from members of the Sri Lankan community at home and in Australia as the search continues.

Australian emergency personnel have been deployed to Nepal to assist consular and response operations, while officials are working with local authorities to account for missing citizens.

As rescue teams continue searching the devastated border region, the Muralitharan family remains among those whose whereabouts have not been confirmed.

(ABC)

Sri Lanka is losing vast amounts of potential state revenue as up to 70 percent of the nation's gambling activity has migrated to online platforms operating largely outside the domestic tax net, according to tax and policy experts.

Tax expert Suresh Perera of KPMG Sri Lanka and Dr. Sudaraka Ariyarathne, a Research Fellow at the Advocata Institute, highlighted critical enforcement loopholes within the island's regulatory and fiscal frameworks.

The warnings come in the wake of recent state action on 5 August 2026, when authorities initially blocked 24 unlicensed gambling websites including major international platforms such as Stake, bet365, Betway, and 1xBet under the Gambling Regulatory Authority Act No. 17 of 2025, before expanding the ban to cover 122 platforms.

The revenue leakage stems primarily from foreign operators lacking a physical footprint in Sri Lanka, which allows them to evade the 45 percent corporate income tax and the betting and gaming levy despite serving local customers.

Suresh Perera stated that the state effectively collects zero revenue from the fastest-growing segment of the gaming industry because offshore operators simply ignore local levy requirements and fall outside traditional tax jurisdiction.

He noted that the government should focus on capturing these uncollected revenues from foreign operators rather than imposing additional tax burdens on lower and middle-income citizens, suggesting that Sri Lanka adopt modern tax concepts such as India's significant economic presence rule to tax non-resident digital entities.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sudaraka Ariyarathne pointed out that domestic and foreign digital platforms aggressively target young sports fans from lower socio-economic backgrounds with promises of easy wins that frequently lead to financial distress.

He noted that simple domain blocking remains ineffective because users bypass restrictions using virtual private networks, emphasizing instead the need to strictly regulate financial payment intermediaries and control digital marketing practices.

Former Aviation Minister Piyankara Jayaratne has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment by the Colombo High Court after being found guilty of bribery charges.

The sentence was handed down by the Colombo High Court in connection with the bribery case against the former minister.

Sri Lanka recorded a 20.07 percent year-on-year surge in services export earnings for July 2026, reaching USD 351.92 million, according to data released by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board.

The official statistics published by the state export agency highlight performance metrics across key commercial sectors during the seventh month of the year, alongside cumulative trade figures for the first seven months of 2026.

The sub-sector breakdown reveals that transport and logistics drove the monthly expansion, generating USD 193.53 million in July, which represents a robust 40.02 percent increase compared to the corresponding period in 2025.

Construction exports experienced strong growth as well, expanding by 30.88 percent year-on-year to reach USD 13.09 million.

Information and Communication Technology together with Business Process Management recorded a modest uptick of 2.32 percent to achieve USD 143.24 million.

Financial services registered a sharp contraction of 57.25 percent during the month, falling to USD 2.10 million.

Commenting on the performance, Export Development Board (EDB) Chairman Mangala Wijesinghe said that the priority of the board is to sustain this positive growth momentum by enhancing the competitive edge of established sectors while simultaneously driving the creation of new products, services, and export destinations.

The sustained momentum across services exports underpins Sri Lanka's ongoing efforts to diversify its foreign exchange revenue streams, with total combined exports of goods and services reaching USD 1,637.26 million in July 2026 as export authorities focus on expanding into new international markets

Sri Lanka faces a heightened threat of dual natural disasters due to severe weather patterns triggered by predicted El Niño conditions, according to Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, who accused the government of failing to prepare adequate contingency plans.

Premadasa issued the warning in a post on X following a joint assessment by United Nations agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Meteorological Organization.

The UN report identified Sri Lanka as a country of elevated concern as the island approaches the upcoming Maha cultivation season.

The UN assessment indicates that above-average rainfall could hit the island starting from October with the arrival of the Second Inter-Monsoon.

While increased precipitation can replenish depleted reservoirs, excessive rain during the crucial planting phase risks causing severe flooding, waterlogging, and significant delays to agricultural activities.

This threat comes alongside earlier forecasts of prolonged dry spells before the rains set in, creating a double risk of drought followed by floods and landslides.

Premadasa criticized the government for what he termed absolute negligence, noting that the lack of protective measures for lives and property is indefensible in light of clear scientific warnings.

The situation is further complicated by rising living costs, which could compound the burden on vulnerable farming communities across the country.

The government has failed to adequately address key international concerns regarding the proposed extension of the retirement age for superior court judges, according to a detailed analysis by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Member of Parliament and Attorney-at-Law Ajith P. Perera.

In a document titled “The Defence Is Worse Than the Crime,” which reviewed the government's response to an inquiry sent by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Perera stated that official explanations left four of the seven central questions unanswered and two only partially addressed.

The controversy centers on the proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which seeks to increase the retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 to 67 and Court of Appeal judges from 63 to 65, while introducing a six-year term limit for the Chief Justice subject to the mandatory retirement age of 67.

Pepera argued that executive assurances failed to provide evidence of broad-based stakeholder engagement prior to policy approval.

He noted that a meeting between President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and representatives of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka took place after Cabinet had already approved the measures and published the Bills in the Gazette, which did not constitute genuine prior consultation.

Perera also challenged the government's justification that extending judicial tenure would alleviate severe court backlogs, pointing out that official figures failed to demonstrate how a two-year extension would resolve delays.

Furthermore, he highlighted data indicating that approximately 95 percent of pending cases as of mid-2025 were concentrated in District Courts and Magistrates' Courts rather than the apex courts, leaving the primary source of judicial delay unaddressed by the amendment.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Member of Parliament Dayasiri Jayasekera has formally requested clarification from Speaker Dr Jagath Wickremaratne regarding a series of allegations directed against Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena.

In a letter dated 31 August, the opposition legislator inquired whether the Speaker had received supporting documentary evidence from any members of parliament and what action had been taken to refer the matter to authorized asset-investigating agencies.

The inquiry follows public controversy surrounding the high-profile X-Press Pearl litigation, which recently generated widespread national interest.

The Kurunegala District lawmaker questioned whether official channels had engaged statutory bodies empowered to probe the financial assets and declarations of the head of the judiciary and his immediate family.

The specific matters raised in the correspondence included allegations regarding the acquisition of valuable real estate in Colombo by the Chief Justice's son and the circumstances surrounding that transaction.

The letter requested clarification on reports concerning the birth and marriage certificates of the Chief Justice as well as the birth records of his children.

Jayasekera also sought to clarify whether the Speaker was contemplating legal or administrative remedies to safeguard the dignity and reputation of the judiciary in the event that the allegations were established to be false.

A request has been made before the Court of Appeal to refer to the Supreme Court a petition seeking an order to invalidate the parliamentary seat of MP Ramanathan Archchuna.

The request was made today (31) by Attorney-at-Law Senany Dayaratne, who appeared on behalf of MP Archchuna, when the petition was taken up before the Court of Appeal.

However, the Court of Appeal stated that an order on the request would be issued at an appropriate time.