Hiyare Reservoir and Rainforest

Hiyare Reservoir and Rainforest

Hiyare Reservoir and Rainforest (Sinhala: හියාරේ ජලාශය සහ වැසි වනාන්තරය) which acts as the catchments of the man-made Hiyare Reservoir, is located in Galle District, Sri Lanka. The site is presently used for recreation purposes. The rainforest spans an area of 243 ha. and is an extension of the Kottawa- Kombala Forest Reserve (Hapuarachchi & Kathriarachchi, 2012). It has been protected since 1919 because of the presence of the 22.22 ha. Hiyare reservoir (Perera et al., 2016). The reservoir has been used as a source of pure drinking water for the people of Galle since 1911 (De Silva, 1996). The Mahadola, a tributary of the Gin Ganga River , rises in the western part of the catchment of the reservoir (De Silva, 1996). Attribution 1)  Hiyare forest by  Raviprabhath  is  licensed under  CC BY-SA 4.0 References 1) De Silva, M.P., 1996. Biodiversity in the catchment of Hiyare reservoir. In Proceedings of International Forestry and Environment Symposium. pp.237-247. 2) Hapuarachchi, G.K. and Kathriar…