Encounters: A Journey Through The Wild

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Sri Lanka may be a small island but it is blessed with an extremely rich diversity of stunning flora and fauna. This sumptuous collection of 170 colour photographs does a real justice to the plants, animals and landscapes of this fabulous country and believe it or not, not one photograph has been digitally altered or modified - what the authors saw through their lenses is exactly what is inside the book. Among those areas covered are Mannar, Nawdankulama, Wilpattu, Yala, Sinharaja and Kumana and there are some excellent shots - one of the highlights is a great photograph of NHBS's icon - the hoopoe in flight! Alongside each photo appear the thoughts and comments of the photographer which brilliantly conveys their enthusiasm. AUTHORS COMMENT Most of the photographs that we have included in the book were taken in once war zone areas like Kumana, Wilpathu and Mannar which were re-opened after the peace process in 2002. Wilpathu for instance, the largest National Park, was closed to the public from 1986 and re-opened in march 2003. It took more than a year to have a decent Leopard sighting! Hence we made a point to depict as many leopard pictures from Wilpathu to show the public that the park was well on the road to recovery. The region of Mannar in particular was inaccessible due to the war and at the front line of the battle zone. Many birds species such as gulls, ducks, crab plovers, avocets, etc were seen in this area in the last two years and therefore some of the pictures of these birds were selected for the book as a showcase of Mannar. It is ironic that the presence of the military had provided security to large flocks of ducks, widgeon by ensuring that no hunting took place in this area. For example, only one or two sightings of spot billed ducks were recorded in the last 100 years until recently where they were found to be nesting in a water body adjacent to the main military camp.