Gardeners of the Forest: Juliet Coombe on Sri Lanka’s Elephants and the Elephant Story Trails Project

Elephant Story Trails Conservation with Juliet Coombe

A conversation about love, loss, and the long memory of elephants

My guest today is Juliet Coombe — prolific British author, award-winning photographer, journalist, and one of the most passionate advocates for Sri Lanka’s people, biodiversity and elephant conservation.

Juliet divides her time between Devon, Cornwall, and Galle Fort — the UNESCO World Heritage site she has called home since the 1990s. She first arrived in Sri Lanka in 1996, fell in love with her translator Shyam Kareem, and stayed, beginning her life with a home inside a 400-year-old fort, having children against the backdrop of civil war, and has spent a lifetime documenting her evident love for Sri Lanka.

Her brilliant book, Around the Fort in 80 Lives, profiles and tells the stories of merchants, makers, and dreamers within Galle Fort’s ancient walls — a human atlas that connects locals and travellers through shared narratives. Her latest edition showcases the children of her original cast of characters, displaying the longevity of craft and skills across the ages.

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The Elephant Story Trails — rewilding our spirit

Juliet’s latest project, Elephant Story Trails: Rewild Your Spirit, is a collaboration with artistic mystic and trainee lawyer  Maneesha Sewwandi and artist and hotelier  John Vincent. Together they’ve created an extraordinary initiative that combines research, storytelling, and community action to protect Sri Lanka’s elephants while restoring harmony between humans and wildlife.

Their work reframes what is often called “human–elephant conflict” into a story of coexistence and solution. Through field research and art, the team has mapped ancient elephant corridors that once stretched across the island — some paths now blocked by development and land reclamation.

The result was an exhibition in Galle Fort’s Literary Festival titled “The Last Elephant — or Not the Last Elephant.” The exhibition caught the attention of Tom Parker Bowles, food writer and son of Queen Camilla, who purchased two charcoal artworks from the show to gift to his mother — an act that symbolically connected the project to Queen Camillas’ brother, Mark Shand and his  ‘Elephant Family Foundation’, a royal-endorsed conservation charity.

 

photo credits : Juliet Coombe

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The vision for 2026 — regeneration through coexistence

In 2026, Elephant Story Trails plans to launch a pilot hospitality and conservation project that could redefine eco-tourism in Sri Lanka.

The project will:

  1. Showcase over 30 safari parks and elephant habitats across the island
  2. Provide alternative income for farmers through “elephant treehouses,” immersive stays where visitors can experience wildlife respectfully while supporting local communities
  3. Integrate technology through apps and sensors to alert people to elephant movements, improving safety for both species.
  4.  Encourage school programs, art collaborations, and global partnerships to raise awareness of Sri Lanka’s wildlife corridors and biodiversity.

This is regenerative travel in its purest form: tourism that heals, teaches, and gives back.

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Why elephants matter

Elephants have shaped Sri Lanka’s landscape for millennia. They disperse seeds, dig for water in the dry season, and maintain forest ecosystems, they are a true keystone species. Spiritually, they represent wisdom, patience, and strength, celebrated in temple carvings and sacred processions like the Kandy Esala Perahera.

Sadly rapid urbanisation and habitat loss have strained their coexistence with humans. As Juliet says, “We need to stop calling it conflict, and start calling it solutions.”

Her project’s vision is to combine empathy, science, and creativity, and shows how Sri Lanka can lead the world in innovating conservation through collaboration across borders and species.

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Listen to the full episode 🎧

Series 3, Episode 1 — “Elephant Stories : Juliet Coombe and Conservation Concepts” 👉 Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts

If you care about wildlife, design, culture, and the art of coexistence, this episode is for you. It is a story about elephants, yes, but also about what it means to think about and preserve the bigger picture and to live in harmony with the world around us.

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