'Expert' Environmentalist of serpents dies from serpent-bite

'Expert' Environmentalist of serpents dies from serpent-bite

An incident is reported of the death of a 46 year old Environmentalist known as Amal Kithruwan Wijeysekera living down Wakwella Road in Galle. He had carved a name for himself as an expert on serpents; but unfortunately he had died from a bite

of a serpent.

Amal who was a bachelor had lived with his parents. This is how his father spoke about the incident: "The deceased is my eldest son. I have two sons and a daughter. My son does not suffer from any illness. As a hobby he rears serpents. Even at home there are serpents. Last 02nd night he was at home. The following day morning the girl in the front house came and said that Amal Aiya had collapsed in front of the gate opposite the house. I went there. Son had fallen with his head down. I kept my hand on the body and felt that his body had become cold. He didn't speak. Later I informed the police about this".

The deceased Environmentalist was someone who used to rear serpents inside the home as a hobby. It has been revealed at the post-mortem examination conducted at Karapitiya Teaching Hospital that he had died as a result of serpent-bite. He was an Old Boy of Richmond College, Galle and his final rites were conducted last 05th. The comment recorded in the Facebook about him from below

'How could one believe that you died from snake poison?

The Aluth Paara of Galle will never be old.

There was another fantastic character in the Aluth Paara. That's Amal Aiya. Amal Aiya is the trade mark of Aluth Paara. I happen to know Amal Aiya when I was in the 10 - 11 class. That's as a person who used to catch animals.

If ever there was a serpent in Galle ... it was Amal Aiya who came to our mind.

When there was news that a serpent had crept into a house or somewhere in Galle, most of us took steps to catch that animal and release it to the forest.

It was from this practice that Amal Aiya became the trade mark of Aluth Paara.

What I believe is that there was nobody as skillful as him who could catch serpents.

Even when the Wild Life Department failed to remove serpents ... Amal Aiya would catch the serpents and thus rescue their life and release them to the forest.

Because of the serpents including snakes he would rescue, they were found inside his room and at various places in cages in the house. Amal Aiya would even attend to the duties of feeding and caring for these serpents. After a party Amal Aiya who came home on Tuesday night could be assumed to have checked how they were getting along. That brutal animal does not identify this man. It does not know that its life was saved from this wonderful man. For that very reason may have blown its hood and stung him. What happened in the end was that this wonderful man who caught snakes and brought consolation to both snakes and humans had to die from snake-bite.

Amal Aiye ... your departure is painful ... it's unbearable. I know that the world you envisaged did not dawn on you. You who saved the lives of hundreds of animals may have gathered more merit than we did ... '