A man watches Nuwan Fernando, left, in the water, who wades in the tide to collect stones washed out from his land due to coastal erosion in Iranawila, Sri Lanka, Monday, June 19, 2023. “I don't know what will happen in the future but I still keep my faith”, Fernando said, one of a few in Iranawila whose house remains intactEranga Jayawardena





A Bengal Tiger looks through glass as water is sprayed to keep it cool at the national zoological garden in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, June. 27, 2023. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo)





Nursery school children dressed in traditional Kandyan costumes pose for photos while they attend a cultural event as a precursor to the Esala Perahera festival on June 28, 2023 in Galle, Sri Lanka. The Esala Perahera or The Festival of the Tooth is an annual festival held in the months of July and August on the streets of Kandy with colourful processions of dancers and elephants to celebrate the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha. (Photo by Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images)





A Thai mahout attends to Asian elephant Sak Surin gifted by the Thai Royal family and named Muthu Raja, or pearly king in Sri Lanka, stands in a pond at the national zoological garden in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, June 30, 2023. Sak Surin, or the honor of the Thai province of Surin, spends its last hours in Sri Lanka its adopted home, awaiting to be airlifted back to its country of birth after alleged abuse. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo)





Two men perform martial arts on a beach in a suburb town of Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 2, 2023. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)





Mahout ride “Sak Surin”, an ailing elephant that had allegedly not been well cared-for in Sri Lanka, which had received it as a gift from the Thai government, but was returned to its home country and taken to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang province in northern Thailand on Sunday, July 2, 2023. (Photo by Nareerat Chaywichain/AP Photo)





Elephant keepers led an ailing Thai elephant named Sak Surin, also known as “Muthu Raja”, to the flight cage for his flight back to Thailand from the National Zoological Garden in Dehiwala Suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 01 July 2023. Sak Surin is a 29-year-old elephant received by Sri Lanka as a gift from the Thai government in 2001. After two decades, the ailing elephant was flown back to Thailand on a charter plane on 01 July to receive medical care. (Photo by Chamila Karunarathne/EPA/EFE)





A resident watches as a health worker fumigates against mosquitoes in a residential area, as Sri Lanka tries to curb dengue fever across the island in Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 12, 2023. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)





Ground staff cover the pitch as rain stops the play during the second day of the first cricket Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle on July 17, 2023. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)





A Hindu devotee takes part in paal kuda pavani (Milk Offering) which is kept and carried on the head, to be offered to Lord Murugan at a Hindu temple, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 22, 2023. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)





Sri Lankan Toque Macaque (Macaca sinica) drinks water from the pond at Sigiriya fortress on August 6, 2023, in Dambulla, Sri Lanka. Sigiriya Lion Rock is an ancient rock fortress known for its massive column of rock that reaches nearly 200 metres high. The site dates back to the reign of King Kasyapa (4774-4795 AD), who chose this site as his new capital. He decorated the walls with frescoes and built an impressive palace right on top of the rock column, accessible only through the mouth of an enormous carved lion. It is located at a distance of 178 km from Colombo and has become a popular tourist spot for foreigners from all over the world. (Photo by Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto via Getty Images)





In this photograph taken on August 9, 2023, children make their way along a street during heavy downpour in Kilinochchi. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)





Union members and civil society activists staged a protest over government debt restructuring affecting the income of EPF and ETF funds in front of the Colombo Fort railway station on 28 August 2023. (Photo by Pradeep Dambarage/Nurphoto)





Decorated elephants walk past the historic Buddhist Temple of the Tooth during a procession celebrating the Esala Perahera festival in the ancient hill capital of Kandy on August 29, 2023. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)





A farmer tries to stop a fire in an abandoned farming land amid a drought in Anamaduwa, Sri Lanka on August 20,2023. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)





A security officer stands by a bus that was damaged when a tree fell on it in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, October 6, 2023. A large tree fell on the moving bus, killing five people and injuring five others, said Dr. Rukshan Bellana, a spokesperson for the capital’s main hospital. Heavy rain triggered floods and mudslides and downed trees in many parts of Sri Lanka. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)





Emergency and rescue personnel gather next to a bus crashed by a falling tree in Colombo on October 6, 2023. At least five people died and several people were injured and taken to hospital when a tree fell on a bus. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)





Police use water cannons to disperse university students demanding the closing of private medical universities during an anti-government demonstration in Colombo on October 27, 2023. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)





Police personnel stand guard outside national cricket board office, in Colombo on November 6, 2023. Sri Lanka's sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe sacked the national cricket board on November 6, days after a humiliating defeat by India at the World Cup. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)





A devotee prepares to place oil lamps at a religious ceremony during the Diwali festival at Ponnambalavaneshwaram Hindu temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka on November 12,2023. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)