Wasgamuwa National Park is a national park that spans Central and North Central Provinces, Sri Lanka. It is considered an important habitat in the country for swamp elephants (Elephas maximus ceylonensis), a subspecies of Sri Lankan elephants (Elephas maximus maximus).
History
This area was originally a gaming sanctuary in about 1907 and was protected from February 1938 as a reserve (Green, 1990; Padmalal et al, 1998). It was then founded as a national park in two phases, with Lots I and II notified on 7 August 1984 and Lot III on 25 January 1980 (Green, 1990).
Physical features
The total area of the park is 37,063 ha and it is bounded by the Mahaweli Ganga river to the east, by Amban Ganga to the west and north and by Dunuwila Oya to the south (Green, 1990). Flood Plain National Park lies immediately to the northeast downstream from Wasgamuwa.
The climate of the park area is tropical, with a dry season extending from March to September and a rainy season from October to February (Fernando et al., 2017). The mean temperature is 32˚C and the mean annual rainfall is 2,250 mm, which occurs mostly during the northeast monsoon (Fernando et al., 2017). Vegetation is dominated by lowland dry semi-evergreen forests (Padmalal et al, 1998).
References
1) Green, M.J.B. ed., 1990. IUCN directory of South Asian protected areas. IUCN. pp.267-271.
2) Fernando, C., Corea, R., Weerasinghe, C. and Fernando, P., 2017. Puddling in elephant dung by Lepidopterans in Wasgamuwa, Sri Lanka. Gajah, pp.14-20.
3) Padmalal, U.K.G.K., Ratnayake, H.D., Weerasinghe, U.R. and Takatsuki, S., 1998. Ecological studies on mammals and birds in Sri Lanka.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 12 May 2022
For a complete tourist map follow this link: Lankapradeepa Tourist Map
For a complete tourist map follow this link: Lankapradeepa Tourist Map
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