Commuters interact with an elephant as he rests in a public road ahead of the annual Perahera festival of the historic Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo on February 18, 2019. Some 50 elephants, most of them from the central area of Kandy along with thousands of traditional drummers, dancers, and monks have gathered in the Sri Lankan capital to participate in the city's biggest two-day annual Buddhist Navam procession, scheduled for February 18-19. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Hirunika Premachandra, a politician and a leader of Samagi Vanitha Balawegaya, a part of the main opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya, hugs a female police member during a protest near Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's private residence, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on June 22, 2022. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

Demonstrators take part in a celebration as Sri Lanka's protest movement reached its 100th day at the Galle face protest area near Presidential secretariat in Colombo on July 17, 2022. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

School girls hold hands while looking out at the Indian Ocean at Galle Face beach in Colombo on December 9, 2022. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

This picture taken on June 3, 2023 shows wild elephants eating rubbish mixed with plastic waste at a dump in the eastern district of Ampara. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

A fisherman throws his net to catch fish in a lagoon in Batticaloa November 24, 2015. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

A mahout walks a tusker along a busy road in Colombo, Sri Lanka on January 19, 2021. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

A fisherman waits to catch fish as he sits atop a stilt in the sea in Koggala, Sri Lanka on July 4, 2019. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)