Yala is a call for meditation

Photo by Ranil Amarasuriya

Yala is about wildlife. That’s the story. It is not incorrect. I first went to Yala in 1971. Family trip. I remember seeing peacock and jungle fowl, deer and wild buffalo. And of course elephants. The next trip was in the late eighties. Friends. All of the above and leopard too. Sure, there were birds and butterflies, trees and flowers and the odd wild boar and crocodile, but it’s mostly elephant, deer and peacock. I had different eyes then and possibly better vision too. This time it was different and not just because of changed ecological, social, political, cultural and economic contexts.


I have the deepest respect for the natural world; just don’t claim to know much about it. I like photographs, but I am neither photographer nor photo-critic. I like to watch animals, but neither have the means nor the knowledge to appreciate them the way I am sure a wildlife enthusiast would. So this is not an essay about wildlife in Yala.

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