A Tamil devotee lights an oil lamp at a religious ceremony during the Diwali or Deepavali festival at Ponnambalavaneshwaram Hindu temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka on October 24, 2022. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

A spot-billed pelican sits on a street light in Colombo on March 16, 2021. (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)

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)

In this photograph taken on September 1, 2024, a tea picker shows her hands whilst she reaps leaves at a plantation in Hatton. The backbone of the economy, Sri Lanka's tea pickers are determined to use their powerful vote to choose a president this month who will change grim working conditions for good. The pickers' main political party, the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), are backing the incumbent Wickremesinghe. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Devotees offer prayers during New Year's Day at a Hindu temple in Colombo on January 1, 2025. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

A vendor gestures as he arranges watermelons for sale at a market in Colombo on February 17, 2025. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

A girl reacts during a rehearsal for the Independence Day military parade in central Kiev, Ukraine, August 19, 2016. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)