Dr. T S U de Zylva - Ornithologist, Conservationist and Bird Photographer par Excellence.

Dr. T S U de Zylva…passed away at the ripe old age of 94 years, on 13^th September 2020.  He was ‘Upen’ to his dear companions and Dr. Upendra to his clientele of Kurunegala who looked to him for their ailments.  

He was a well-known medical practitioner in Kurunegala with a long-established history, running his own private practice after a brief stint in the Government Health Service. However he was more renowned and celebrated as the first-ever wildlife photographer specializing in bird photography who introduced our birdlife to the world in the mid-19^th century through his numerous pictorial publications.   

Dr. Thosatiratne Sri Upendra de Zylva (TSU) was born in 1927. He had his early education at Maliyadeva College Kurunegala, and moved to Royal College, Colombo for his high school education. When WW II broke out the Royal College premises was taken over by the RAF and young TSU had to move into Kandy with his parents and was enrolled at the Dharmaraja College. With the war ending, he was back in Colombo but this time not in Royal College but as a student of Ananda College from where he passed his Matriculation Examination followed by the University Entrance Examination facilitating his entry to the Medical Faculty.

He had a passion for photography and biology but there were times when photography did override the other. Young TSU when in the Medical College did take a photo of an operation being performed by legendary Surgeon Dr. P R Anthonis then as a demonstration to the medicos. Fearful of the incident the young medico handed the photograph to Dr. Anthonis; to his astonishment, he was commended and gifted Rs 300/= for the print. That was a fortune worth 100 film rolls for him then.

It was his mother who bought him his first camera a Zeiss Contax when on a holiday in India and his father also a practicing doctor in Kurunegala, gifted him a 16mm Bolex Cine camera the day he passed out as a qualified doctor.

His first appointment was to the Chilaw hospital as the first House Officer. This was a time when there was only a District Medical Officer and a District Medical Assistant before him. It was while in Chilaw that he befriends Herschel Pandithasekera, a well-known personality in the bird circles who had a passion for Snipe shooting. It was he who encouraged him into birdwatching and bird photography.

After a brief stint in the Health Services, his father calls him to join the family practice assisted by his brother-in-law, Dr. Ananda de Silva. This brings him back to Kurunegala and life got into a routine and his brother-in-law gave him the liberty of taking every other weekend off for his photography and he would coverup for him,

Picture courtesy - M.A. Pushpa Kumara Sunday Times

Known as the “ge aran ena mahaththaya” meaning the gentleman who comes with the house for he carried his bird hides done of canvas and jute and ventured into the remotest countryside to photo record nesting behavior of rare birds. It would take hours for him to install the hides elevating him to be in line with the bird and would sit for days inside them to get his prize photo. The only record of the very rare Broad-billed Roller [Dollar Bird] nesting has still not been recorded since his record 40 years ago. It was not the digital era then and color film processing was not heard of in the country. All his exposures were on positive color slides that were very costly and were processed outside the country.

Dr. T S U de Zylva ventured to his task of bird photography with limited resources and equipment depended on his Hasselblad camera. He had done much photo recording of bird behavior then when compared to what is taking place now in the most viral way. However, it must be noted that he discontinued his habit of photographing the nesting behavior of birds when it was to be reprehended in line with the general practice of ethical birdwatching that was to be introduced later. This being for restriction of man’s intervention with breeding birds and of divulging the habitats of critically endangered and rare birds.

His love for the Hasselblad camera and the versatility of its usage in the field of bird photography brings him closer to Dr. Victor Hasselblad himself [inventor of the Hasselblad camera] and together they venture into wildlife conservation and numerous other publications. As a gesture to his commitment, TSU receives a grant worth US$ 30,000 from Dr. Victor Hasselblad to be used on any worthy wildlife undertaking.

He is credited with the earliest publication of the photographic guide to the BIRDS OF SRI LANKA which displays much of his own photographs. This followed with a wonderful collection of coffee table publications……   Wings in the Wetlands: A Photographic Portfolio,... Sri Lanka Jungle Profiles (Animals of the SAARC Region),... Sinharaja: Portrait of a Rainforest,... Sri Lanka Nature Pictorial,... Cradles on the Sand: In a Bygone Era,... Images of Birds: A Random Selection of the Birds of Sri Lanka.

He was an active member of the two prominent bird and wildlife organizations in the 50- 60 era the Ceylon Bird Club (CBC) and the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society (WNPS).  He represented many committees in the WNPS and was elected its President in the years 1982-1983.

Apart from his contribution to birds and photography, his greatest gift to wildlife was in the conservation of sea turtles. He is the pioneer in this venture. He with the late Dr. Siri Wickremesinghe, a close friend with similar interests in wildlife and nature decided on utilizing some monies from the Hasselblad grant for the conservation of sea turtles. They had learned of Similius Abrew of Kosgoda who had a love for turtles and was in the habit of setting them free off ghost nets drifting in the sea.

They meet Similius and discuss their plan to grant a sum of money to build a hatchery and then pay poachers and fishermen more for their eggs than they would be getting selling them to eateries and markets. This was way back in 1978 when all the seven species of sea turtles were on the endangered list and five of them were frequenting the Kosgoda beach to lay their eggs. Similius was not that confident of the venture at the beginning but offered his beachfront property in Nape, Kosgoda to layout the hatchery that was to be financed by TSU.  

Thus started the 1^st ever sea turtle conservation project in this country. Initially, it was the school children that came over to Nape to study these turtles and Similius started to collect a small gate fee for maintenance expenses until tourism caught up where he could relieve TSU from the burden of funding the hatchery to meet its overheads.

Today none of them are living but the Kosgoda Sea Turtle Hatchery runs generating its revenue to run on its own managed by Similius’ son Chandrasiri Abrew and grandson.

This is the life story of a gentleman who loved this country, its weather the fauna, and the flora but went very much unheard in the recent past. He took time off from everything just to be part of the forest and nature whenever time permitted. All this happen at a time when photography was not an affordable hobby and one had to wait for weeks to know if your picture was a success or not unlike today’s digitized photography. TSU was a sought after name when it came to the yearend greeting cards then in the ’60s. The WNPS greeting cards were a must and most often they were from prints of TSU’s birds and other wildlife. We schoolboys then were in the habit of collecting these cards. To me, it was him that instigated the love for birds and nature apart from the teachers at school, S Thomas’ College Gurutalawa where birdwatching was practiced as an extracurricular activity. 

I have only met him in person just once when he was entrusted with the task of selecting the three best photographs at the very first bird photography contest conducted by FOGSL. He was generous enough to provide a color slide of a Blue Magpie in Sinharaja for the Blue Magpie Conservation poster for FOGSL. 

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