Appreciation of biodiversity in Sri Lanka

Saturday, 13 September 2025 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The need for tourism to be used as a route to protect nature

By Alex Baratosy, Australia

Before I even knew anything else about Sri Lanka, I found out that it had an amazing bio-diversity and abundance of life. This was the foremost thing that brought me to this country. My first visit was in 2018. During this trip I spent 10 days at the Sumathipala Meditation Centre in Kanduboda, a month in Wasgamuwa doing conservation research biology with Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS) and five days in Sinharaja rainforest (plus a month of touristy travelling). I soon realised that the people, food and the culture was as amazing and diverse as the beautiful wildlife and nature.

I try my hand at poetic writing when inspired by the beauty in all that I see. I am also an amateur photographer and take photos of insects and birds, every time I go into nature. In Sri Lanka, I see different aspects of biodiversity, which keeps me exploring. During this current (and second) visit to Sri Lanka I saw a Mantis Ant, which you have to believe your eyes when you see it. I was confused at first as I did not make it out in the greenery. The biodiversity of living things in Sri Lanka is truly incredible.

Below is the poetic-prose description of the grandeur of nature which I penned in Sri Lanka earlier this month.

“The slight wind washes over the plant with white flowers, it’s subtle stem breaks, and freely floats to the forest floor with a slow meandering pace, adding to the debris on the ground that’s built up over years, creating ecosystems for invertebrates that pollinate and sustain the surrounding forest.

Chirps, whistles, honks and yells are heard in the glowing radiance of the morning, the light illuminating the vast valley, the higher the sun goes, the more magnificence gets the shine on the forest floor.

Multiple species of birds, with kaleidoscopic colours, red, yellow, green, black, white, they blur past in their own routine of morning rituals, some congregate around flowers, some trees with nuts, others hunt the butterflies, moths, flies, beetles that you see as tiny specks flying in the open.”

The brilliant biodiversity observed from the front of my accommodation gives me hope that there are still intact ecosystems seemingly unaffected by the power of the modern world.

We can’t lose our planet’s biodiversity, what would be the point of living without it.

This, my second journey to Sri Lanka, won’t be my last, Sri Lanka is really my favourite place I have travelled to in the world.

When I was at the Natural Mystic Sanctuary in Deniyaya, not very far from the Sinharaja forest, I got a true feeling of peace. I heard all the birds, the wind rustling, and the waters flowing. The mantra of nature was constantly chanting around me.

Nature is the sustainer of all life and humans cannot live without nurturing it. This is what we must learn. Tourism should be aligned with nature conservation around our planet and woven into the global hospitality industry.