Great Sandy River (Bleeding Mountain)

Through a series of photographs, she traces the Mahaweli River, the island’s longest, whose natural course has been disrupted by decades of exploitation, dam construction, and deforestation. By capturing the grandeur of landscapes alongside the muted aftermath of human intervention, her work reveals the ecological disruptions, community displacements, and biodiversity loss caused by damming. The series offers a critical perspective on the paradox of 'green energy,' showing how hydropower, despite its sustainable promise, can inflict irreversible damage on ecosystems. De Mel exposes how technological interventions—here, energy infrastructures—reshape the natural world, under the subtheme of ecology, agriculture, and nature.