| Yala National Park |
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Sri Lanka ’s best known national park is popular for Elephant, Leopard, Bear, Crocodile and Wild Boar. More than three times larger than Udawalawe at 97,800 hectares, this is the second largest of Sri Lanka’s national parks. Its open, undulating terrain made it famous for elephants for many years, but the park is also now famed for its Leopard population due to publicity by National Geographic and the Discovery TV channels, which focused on a leopard research/conservation and identification project.
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| Wilpattu National Park |
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Located between Modergum Aru in the North and the Kala Oya in the South is Sri Lanka’s largest reserve—the Wilpattu National Park. The park derives its name from the many natural lakes or ‘Villus’ found in the park. These inland salt-lakes are, in fact, unique to Wilpattu.
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| Wasgomuwa Strict Natural Reserve |
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Declared a strict natural reserve as way back as in 1938, Wasgomuwa was elevated to the level of a National Park in 1984. Situated 260 kilometers from Colombo, the park occupies areas of the North Central and Central provinces with a total land area of 39,000 hectares. The park consists mostly of Riverine Forest, Grasslands and Wetlands encompassing many different habitats for its inhabitants. |
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| Minneriya
Sanctuary |
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Situated within half an hours drive from Habarana and 182 kilometers from Colombo, The forests and that surround the Minneriya tank was declared as a sanctuary in 1938 and later declared as a National Park in August of 1997. |
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| Sinharaja
Rain Forest |
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The Sinharaja Forest Reserve is one of the least disturbed, biologically rich, lowland rain forests in the region. It was declared a Man and Biosphere Reserve (MAB) in 1978 and later declared a National Wilderness Area in 1988. Later, in 1989, UNESCO recognized Sinharaja as a World Heritage Site and it continues to remain a unique effort in conservation.
The 11,100 hectares of dense rain forest receive over 2500mm of annual rainfall fed by two monsoons. Sinharaja teems with various forms of life and has a very high degree of endemism.
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| Udawalawe
National Park |
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Udawalewe National Park is an area of 31,800 hectares, which was declared a protected sanctuary with full national park status in 1972. The park area which falls within two provinces of Sri Lanka has a annual rainfall of 1,520 mm and an average temperature of 29.4 C. |
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| Kaudulla Sanctuary |
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Kaudulla was opened to the public and made a National Park in 2002 along with the re-opening of Wilpattu National Park. It consists of 6,656 hectares of dry evergreen forests located around the Kaudulla Tank within the Pollonaruwa District.
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| Horton Plains |
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Somewhere in 1836 when Ceylon was under British rule, Sir Robert Horton, the Governer of Ceylon agreed to make a journey to meet with the Ratemahathmaya (the local chieftain) of the Sabaragamuwa Province. The meeting place was scheduled to take place somewhere between the towns of Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura on the Mahaweli Plain. Old Sinhalese villagers relate a story of how a great procession of elephants climbed the treacherous track beyond Ratnapura via Belihuloya towards the Mahaweli plateau, where the two parties met at Horton Plains.
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Bundala Sanctuary
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| With over 167 species of birds recorded, Bundala is one of the best locations in the country to observe both resident and migrant bird species. The only RAMSAR site in Sri Lanka, Bundala is one of the best wetland habitats in the island and is home to thousands winter visitors during the annual migratory season between September and March. |
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