The topography of Sri Lanka is unique of its central massif that radiate perineal waterways to the flat low lying lands beyond. The landmass from the North-West to the South–East via the North of the country is named as the dry zone. The precipitation from the North-East monsoon is inadequate for agricultural needs in this area and is supplemented with ...

Did the social structure prevent our ancestors from building to last, or were they more environment concern?Ancient man needed to build to protect him from the elements and the wild. The habit of living in naturally formed caverns changed with the increase in population. Abodes were needed; and these he built. These primitive constructions were of basic woody forest material ...

Bird Watching too is not free from assertion ….it is noted that certain birds are only identified by their silhouetted flight profile and one may not see them rested on a branch or sitting on a nest in one's lifetime.Two such birds have lingered my memory until resent. The Indian Swiftlet [Collocalia uniclor] and the Brown-backed Needle Tail [Hirundapus giganteus] ...

It was just after the Spring break in 2017 and we are invited by Linda; my daughter’s friend to spend a weekend with them in Panora in Iowa. The weather was still in a more wintery spring with heavy overcast skies but a rain free weekend is predicted. We arrive late Friday evening in remote rural Panora in the state ...

Sri Lanka, this thrice blessed land by the Buddha, is said to have changed spiritually, culturally and politically with the arrival of Arahat Mahinda in the 2nd century BC during King Dewnapiyatissa’s reign. It is this cultural change that created the magnificent stone architecture of Samadhi and Auwkana Buddha statues of Anuradhapura and the immaculate Pollonnaruwa Gal Vihara. The immaculate ...

Landscapes are definitive land areas that stand apart from each other. They are classed under different physical elements; mountains, hills, deserts, ices-capes, water-bodies, rivers, lakes, ponds and seas. They also vary on living elements as land-cover and vegetation. Human elements also create landscapes though land use practices; architecture, building construction, large scale farming and agriculture. Man’s association with natural landscapes ...

Many of us from S Thomas’s Collage Gurutalawa [STCG]; a school in the central hills of Sri Lanka are fond of out-bound living and are very much into Bird watching. Professor Sarath W Kotagama was one who made ornithology his profession at the Zoology Department of the University of Colombo. He pioneered the forming of ‘The Field Ornithology Group ...

April is the holiday month in Sri Lanka; the Sinhala/Tamil New year. It’s more like the Chinese New Year in East Asia, everything comes to a standstill. My work-site in Ratnapura closed for the New Year on  April 10, 2011; we agreed to come back  by the Monday April 18, 2011. My staff was back as agreed; but for the ...

Like so many seemingly impossible shots you see these days…. this shot is not a digital creation. That’s because I was not alone when it was taken at Great Western Talawakele. Photography today is a new turn altogether with digital technology overriding light exposed on celluloid. “No I did not just lift the camera and shoot this”……..but was following the ...

The area named Everglades National Park of the Everglades wetland landmass situated towards the south of Florida is different to the Big Cypress National Park which is situated more centrally in the glades. It’s a total preservation unlike the Big Cypress while no ownership of property is entertained and the only overnight stayers are the recreational campers.The flora is of ...

Paradise in a religious sense is a place with positive existence where life is harmonious and eternal. Generally, a place of contentment where peace and prosperity prevail. In a practical sense, a land of satisfaction but not necessarily a land of luxury and idleness. A tropical island where one feels as though everything is perfect and wonderful is also defined ...

I was requested to contribute on the history of the Kotagama family of Yalkumbura Bibile to a booklet that the University of Colombo, Zoology Department published on Professor Sarath Wimala Bandara Kotagama Titled "Kota's Nature" on the eve of his retirement from the University of Colombo.I would like to thank Dr. Nihal Dayawansa for extending me an invitation to contribute ...

Aditha Dissanayake 3rdSeptember 2014…..my beloved niece Aditha Dissanayake messages me that the English translation of Marin Wickranasinghe’s “Kaliyugaya” which she co-authored with Dr Ranga Wickramasinghe has won the best English translation at the State Literary Awards for 2014. It’s a memorable day in her life no doubt; I’m a happy man as well on her achievement, for it was ...

Nilaveli; A beach front with its wide and tranquil sands; "Pigeon Islands" a kilometer away, was a secret locality in Pura-male, Trincomalee in the sixties and even early seventies. The tourism that was to exploit Trinco and other locates in the east coast then, did not exploit Nilaveli until now. It still has only one hotel that exist to this ...

My visit to the USA in 2009 was never a dream come true. It was only because Naveen our son, having won a scholarship to read a PhD at Miami in 2006 and us qualifying for a Visa being able to meet the minimum financial requisites.Camping in the Everglades of Florida, the worlds largest mangrove ecosystem was such a memorable ...

Ever since the Horton Plains was declared a National Park in 1988; so was the influx of busloads of visitors to view the famous escarpment named the World’s End. Its a pity that most visitors only come here to view the precipices and the Baker’s Fall. They seem to be ignorant of the fauna and flora that is unique to ...

Not many of us living in the tropics get to experience the four climatic seasons of the temperate zone. We are more familiar to the monsoon effected wet and dry climatic seasons in the tropics. I was at the right place at the right time in October 2011 as a member of our family visiting the Great Smokey Mountains in ...

It is located in the most bizarre place; no sea front nor a lake front, but alongside a rivulet with no fish for the hook. Moray Estate is a remote tea plantation in the fringe of Sri Lanka’s peak wilderness; ‘Samanala Adaviya’, colloquial to the native or the ‘Adams Peak’ protected area.Samanala Kanda surrounded by the Peak WildernessMist setting in ...

Recently it was reported, of a leopard cub being run over by a speeding jeep within the Yala National Park. Many were the criticism on the social net working groups that spelt high adrenal language on the new digital photo maniacs of Colombo chasing leopards in Yala, who are more in the liking to make shots similar to those ...

Rev Fr, Harold Cuthbert Goodchild - [1964-1969 & 1975-1990] Dear Rev Fr Goodchild…… you have been a mentor a guiding light and an inspiration to all of us who were in college during the spells that you had had in this school in the hills; S Thomas’ College Gurutalawa….the first ever outbound school in this country. No doubt the best ...