Wilpattu is one of the oldest National Parks in Sri Lanka Located in
Northwest coast lowland dry zone of Sri Lanka. The park lies within
the North-central & North-western providences. The area of the park is
131693 ha. The unique feature of this park is the existence of
“Willus” (Natural lakes).
As the park lies in dry zone rainfall is highly seasonal.
Inter-monsoonal rains in March and the northeast monsoon (December –
February) are the main sources of rainfall. Mean annual rainfall is
about 1000 mm and the mean annual temperature is about 27°C.
The park consists of willus, dry-lowland forests, scrublands, open
grasslands and coastal belt. Characteristic feature of the park is
that majority of park area is covered with dense forest.
The vegetation dominated by tree species such as Palu (Manilkara
hexandra), Weera (Drypetes sepiaria) & Satin (Chloroxylon swietenia).
Milla (Vitex altissima), Ebony (Diospyros ebenum) and Wewarana (Alseodaphne
semecaprifolia) are also found in fair numbers.
Elephants, leopards, sloth bear, water buffalo and spotted deer are
among the large mammals. Coastal belt and willus support abundant
birdlife such as painted storks, white ibis, open bills, Whistling
teals, spoonbills, cormorants and kingfishers. Apart from them serpent
eagles, great racket tail Drongo, Malabar pied hornbills, crested hawk
eagles & Sri Lanka junglefowls are commonly seen. Both water monitors
and mugger crocodiles can be seen in the willus.
How to get there
Willpattu can be reached from Chilaw going north along west coast from
colombo or coming from Anuradhapura