Kadolkele Mangrove Reserve

Kadolkele Mangrove Reserve (Sinhala: කඩොල්කැලේ කඩොලාන රක්ෂිතය) is a small mangrove forest patch located on the right bank of the Northern part of Negombo Estuary in Gampaha District, Sri Lanka. It belongs to the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency [(NARA) Priyadarshani et al., 2008]. It is also a popular site for mangrove-related field studies of the country (Dissanayake & Chandrasekara, 2014). Extending into an area of 10 ha, the reserve is home to 30 mangrove species and of them, 19 are considered as true mangroves (Dahanayaka et al., 2015; Dissanayake & Chandrasekara, 2014; Priyadarshani et al., 2008). The highest abundance of mangroves is from the 3 mangrove families, namely, Rhizophoraceae, Avicenniaceae, and Combretaceae (Dissanayake & Chandrasekara, 2014). The reserve also remains as a habitat for 32 other types of vegetation, 44 bird species and 35 fish species (Dahanayaka et al., 2015). The geographic region of the Kadolkele Mangrove Forest ar…