Sanctuary- Sacred spaces for natural highs | Daily News

Sanctuary- Sacred spaces for natural highs

Juliet Coombe talks to two epic coffee-table-book writers and photographers about their plans after producing Sanctuary, one of Sri Lanka’s most beautiful wildlife coffee table books

Both Somanath Fernando and Isuru Gunasekera, the writers of Sanctuary, feel that, on top of writing this book, it is equally important to continue spreading its message – “to create and increase the awareness and importance of conserving our environment and protecting even the smallest of ecological spaces from destruction.” Their message is simple: to inspire the next and younger generations, of wildlife enthusiasts, photographers, school children, people who travel to the island and those that live among the animals to keep this message of protection constantly in the forefront of their minds. “On a personal front, both Somanath and I have already started going back into the wilds in search of new encounters, for book 2. From an output perspective, whilst our key message will always remain the same, we are searching for our next theme to make the messages stronger – and we think we may already have found one! And after considering feedback on Sanctuary, both the positive and negative, we are eager to make the next better and more impactful,” explains Isuru Gunasekera.

“Thanks to social media, the atrocities that are currently taking place in the destruction of our plant and animal life are painfully evident – like the barbaric killing of a leopard in Kilinochchi. The sad truth is that we have neither learnt to live side by side with other living creatures, nor internalized the reality that whilst it may seem like these animals are constantly invading and harming human life, it is us who have invaded their territory by closing up elephant corridors with buildings and over fishing areas. They are merely trying to live off the land like they have done for millions of years, but, unfortunately, there are more humans now competing for the space. So, a lot more education needs to be happening at the grass roots level. What we are also learning is that those reading our book may not possibly be the community in most need of education on the subject. Therefore, we can only hope that people who have access to this material, both ours and others, use the knowledge therein, to share and spread the word where it’s most required and become ambassadors of change, at large, with one focus: to nurture and protect the island’s greatest assets,” they said.

“Sanctuary is a book that describes an Eden-like paradise, where every animal from the Sinharaja Bokeh snake, shimmering across sandy water, to exotic birds, can be found adorning the pages with natural beauty. Each stunning picture in the book is a stark reminder to us all of just how incredible nature is and why it has never been more important to protect this enchanted isle from the selfishness of mankind, reminding us to take our rubbish home. It is like a living ‘jungle book’, flicking through the pages of this huge coffee table book, where bears and leopards can be seen drinking water together, and you will most likely meet more than one Mowgli walking and talking to the animals as they often make more sense than all the machines we now glue ourselves to,” Gunasekera added.

The authors and creators of the book spent eight years on many ‘jungle book’ style adventures that highlight Sri Lanka’s fourteen different bio-spheres. They had only one aim in mind, as tennis partners and friends, and that was to share the island’s incredible wildlife diversity with the world in order to save it for future generations. With mass, sometimes ill-thought-out building, after the civil war and little thought given to its impact on nature, this book could not be more timely and important. Make no mistake, though, these unregulated sanctuaries are as important as the official ones, and make up half the book’s images and stories.

The two young men selected a pictorial theme for the book to seduce all of us into taking responsibility for the preservation of vulnerable habitats, even protecting the wildlife in our own gardens, and as you read your way through this brilliantly choreographed masterpiece you will see that some of the best images have been captured in commonplace locations, unconnected with the legally protected top five national parks and wetland animal habitats; hence the title, ‘Sanctuary’.

Isuru explains that the choice of the book title was to show how God and nature interconnect, “Firstly, Sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place and by extension, the term signifies any place of safety. When we speak of the sanctity of something, it is to suggest holiness, and that which must be treated with a great deal of respect and devotion. Therefore, an animal or plant sanctuary, whether protected by law or otherwise, is a place where all living beings within, must be guaranteed the immunity necessary, to function as partners of a natural ecosystem.”

The writing and approach are quite different from other wildlife books on sale at bookshops like Barefoot and Vijitha Yapa, as it is the photographers’ accompanying stories behind many of the images that remain with you after looking through and reading them. Both Isuru and Somanath are clearly deeply moved by their individual and combined journeys, and want us to learn firsthand what they experienced on their many different wildlife field trips. Central always to the theme of pictorial exoticism is a plea from the two men, to preserve all habitats and in particular unregulated and unprotected ones, in commonplace locations, that are not legally protected, despite being home to enormously valuable wildlife hot spots. Buying the book is one thing as it will enrich your life, but changing our habits and not buying plastic, littering the island, returning to wrapping our goods in leaves or buying from open baskets, is quite another. The big supermarkets need to take a leaf out of the actions of village shops and focus on a sustainable way of environmental selling that is less harmful to the environment than the current big business commercial approach.

Life, after all, is for living and one must remember that when the cycle of life is broken, destroyed bit by bit, we ourselves are at risk, as all mankind’s future is dependent on the natural world. If only it was natural for all of us to want to protect the few remaining sanctuaries in the world. Hopefully this book will be the inspiration and the change we need to see in the world so that future generations can enjoy what so many of us sadly take for granted.


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