The body of a 59-year-old man has been recovered from the bottom of a ravine in the Ellahena area of Ayagama in the Ratnapura district, police said.
Preliminary investigations indicate the man had fallen into the precipice roughly five days before his body was found, according to police. The body was spotted at the bottom of the ravine on Thursday, prompting authorities to begin a recovery operation.
The steep terrain and difficulty of access meant police were unable to retrieve the body on their own. Assistance was sought from the Sri Lanka Army to bring it up from the ravine.
The dead man has been identified as a resident of the same area. Police have not said what led to the fall, and investigations are continuing.
A district of steep terrain
Ayagama sits in the wet-zone hill country of the Ratnapura district, an area of sharp gradients, gem pits and thick vegetation where falls into ravines and abandoned workings are a recurring hazard. The combination of dense cover and difficult access frequently delays both the discovery of missing people and the recovery of bodies, as it did in this case.
Police routinely call on military assistance for recoveries in such terrain, where rope work and manpower are needed to reach locations that are otherwise unreachable on foot.
No other outlet had reported the incident at the time of writing.
