Lalith Ekanayake
This body of work explores the fragile boundary between wilderness and the expanding human footprint. Across Sri Lanka, India, and Madagascar, these images document moments where nature persists, often under mounting pressure.
In Sri Lanka, wild Asian elephants forage in landfills and abandoned structures, their ancient forest routes replaced by concrete and waste. A deep scar across an elephant’s trunk reflects wider ecological damage. Along coastal margins, seabirds rise in synchronised flight, revealing both resilience and vulnerability. Beneath the earth, bats cling to cave ceilings sustained by fragile microclimates.
In India’s Western Ghats, an endangered lion-tailed macaque carries her infant across a forest path, a symbol of continuity in a fragmented landscape. In Madagascar, a leaf-tailed gecko disappears into bark, reflecting evolution’s precision.
Together, these images form chapters of the Anthropocene: adaptation, endurance, and displacement. The intention is not accusation but awareness.
Master of Disguise, 2025, Mantadia National Park, Madegascar.
Clinging motionless to the trunk of a rainforest tree in eastern Madagascar, a leaf-tailed gecko becomes almost indistinguishable from the bark beneath it. At first glance, the textured surface appears to be lichen, scars, and weathered wood, but closer inspection reveals the flattened body, irregular skin edges, and muted tones of a gecko relying on extreme camouflage to remain unseen. This moment captures one of nature’s most refined examples of cryptic adaptation, where survival depends on remaining unnoticed.
Leaf-tailed geckos are nocturnal, arboreal reptiles endemic to Madagascar, using their bark-like appearance to evade predators during daylight hours and ambush prey under cover of darkness. While such adaptations have evolved over millions of years, they offer little defence against accelerating habitat loss. Ongoing deforestation and pressure from the illegal wildlife trade continue to threaten many species, making intact rainforest habitats essential for their survival.
A Place Not To Be, 2024, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
Once the rulers of Sri Lanka’s ancient forests, these wild Asian elephants now scavenge through human waste—a stark and distressing consequence of habitat loss, environmental degradation, and human encroachment. In this aerial scene, a group of elephants feed at an open garbage dump as a tractor–trailer unloads a fresh consignment of waste, where food scraps are mixed with plastic, toxins, and other hazardous materials. What was once a symbol of strength, intelligence, and ecological balance has been reduced to a daily struggle for survival amid human excess. As the elephants unknowingly ingest slow poisons, their fate becomes inseparable from our consumption habits. This image bears witness to a silent crisis and serves as a call for urgent action to protect remaining habitats and restore coexistence between people and wildlife.