harithacharika - Travelling Nature in Sri Lanka: Udawalawa Trip

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Udawalawa Trip – September 26, 27 & 28, 2025 - Part 01

The Udawalawa National park lays both in the Sabaragamuwa and Uva provinces and includes the Udawalawe Reservoir, together with much of its catchment area. The park serves the dual purpose of ensuring a perennial supply of silt free water to the reservoir and providing a refuge for wildlife displaced by the opening up of land for agriculture and other purposes in the lower reaches of the Walawe Ganga (river). The Udawalawe National park is renowned for its outstanding scenic beauty and wealth of faunal species, particularly mammals and birds. Udawalwe had been declared as the fifth National Park of Sri Lanka on the 30^th June 1972.

September/October is one of the driest seasons in most dry-zone national parks in Sri Lanka, thus until recent times the parks were kept closed to visitors during such times. It was very evident why it was done so, as during our recent tour we experienced the park to be so dry with only very little greenery to be seen. Due to this climatic condition, and also due to a few unexpected technical problems that we faced, the animal counts during this trip were comparatively slightly lower than usual.

Yet, the stay at the Thimbiriyamankada bungalow became very memorable due to the rescued Brahminy Kite and Brown Fish Owl that hung around the bungalow, and was quite friendly towards visitors. The views and scenery from around the bungalow was superb where we observed many bird and animal species as well. The service given by the bungalow caretaker Mr. Chinthaka was great, providing us with delicious meals.

Apart from the birds and other animal species recorded from around the bungalow and during the safari done in the Mau-Ara upper zone, the most memorable item of the trip was the river bath we had in the Weli-oya River nearby the Pilimaddara camp site. We are thankful to Deputy park warden Mr. Kapila and tracker Asanga of the Department of Wildlife conservation for their fullest cooperation given to us during this trip.