The article undearneath has been published by the newspaper Sunday Observer, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on June 16, 2002, author is Umangi de Mel.
Could the strange blue ball of light, speeding at just 2 feet above the ground near the ancient, sacred cliff of Dimbulagala, have been an alien space probe seeking the mysteries of our ancients?
Sanjaya Bandara, a UFO expert claims that the "strange blue light" that has been sighted in Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura during the past few weeks, could be a probe craft of an extra terrestrial space ship.
The particular "blue light" was sighted for the first time in the seed farm in Polonnaruwa on May 13, around 11.30 pm. It has also later appeared in the Anuradhapura district. "It took me three days to get this thing on video tape and when I finally did, it was around Dimbulagala, the same stretch where it was first seen," says Gamini Obeysekara, Polonnaruwa correspondent of Rupavahini. "It was about 3km away from me," he says.
However, this "UFO" sighting has still not been confirmed, even though many predictions were being made. "Members of the Sri Lanka UFO Research Association will proceed to Polonnaruwa to get an on-the report on Saturday as 95% of the sightings could be fabrications," says Chandana Jayaratne, Senior lecturer in the Physics department, University of Colombo. "We do not doubt UFOs but we can not be sure until we check for ourselves. We should be able to confirm it by Tuesday," he says.
Meanwhile, Nalaka Gunawardena, Executive Officer to Sci-fi guru Sir Arthur C. Clarke, says that there is no link between the UFO sightings all over the world and the potential for life in other galaxies. "A majority of scientists believe that there is life on other habitable planets but there is not enough evidence to make most of the previous sightings plausible."
According to Gunawardena, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) USA, 90% of the previous sightings have been merely man-made phenomena. They have proved that it has always been an image of a natural object, created due to certain weather conditions.
"However, Sri Lanka Air Force and the Air Traffic controllers have the capacity to track each and every object that crosses into our air space, and so far, nothing of that nature has been reported," he says.
But the man who saw the light disagrees. "So many people, unknown to each other have seen the light and have come up with the same account," says Sanjaya. "The light seems to go towards sacred areas". He predicts that the Extra Terrestrials could either be on the lookout for technology that was used to construct sacred buildings or may be an attempt to locate the "Vishva Yathura" (Key to the Universe)!
The UFO analysts believe that this light that moves two feet off the ground could be an alien probe. "They could be doing a research," he says. "Extra Terrestrials may be seeking the 'Key' to the 'Star Gate' and thereby activate a system of travel that transcends conventional space travel to reach another galaxy."
He points out that there have been a number of such sightings in Egypt where historical structures exist. "It is possible for them to be interested in ancient sites such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa."
Note: as a sequel, an original article appeared on the Web site of the newspaper Daily News of Sri Lanka on www.dailynews.lk/2002/07/04/new19.html for July 4, 2002.
Under the title "Flying saucers on the rise again?" the newspaper's web site tells that hundreds of people have seen UFO phenomena over Sri Lanka according to professor Chandana Jayaratne of the University of Colombo who has investigated the cases.
Several UFO sightings have been reported from various parts of Sri Lanka over the last few weeks, and Jayaratne sais that "these sightings have been confirmed by a group of keen observers," at a press conference held in the Colombo University. One of the observers, Sanjeeva Bandara, has even written books on UFOs.
Another unnamed observer said that "More than 100 villagers have seen the UFO," and "In general we cannot consider these stories as being fabricated. We camped near the Parakrama Samudra on June 15. We didn't see anything on our first day but on the second day around 11.30 pm we saw a blue-white light. The light beam is so unlike any of other light beam we have seen before. The light beams rotated, suddenly disappeared and reappeared a few seconds later from a place 300-400 meters away from the place it was initially. A few seconds later it again disappeared. We camped near the Parakrama Samudraya. Dense jungle stretched out to the far end and the light beam came from the jungle. Therefore, we could not go out to investigate. Out of our preliminary investigations it turned out to be an object capable of emitting 'V' shaped beam of light of intense illumination. The villagers including an Advanced Level student told us the flying object is capable of moving at a very high velocity and when it is travelling at a lower height it made a sound similar to a sound made by a bee. And it could change its direction to avoid colliding with trees. For three consecutive days we observed the same UFO."
