Maduru Oya National Park

Maduruoya is situated by Kuda Sigiriya a great eco location yet to be explored by travelers to Sri Lanka. The Maduru Oya National Park is located in the Dry Zone and is 300 k.m. away from Colombo. It is one of the reserve’s with rich in ancient ruins found in different places and its southern parts provide veddhas, (indigenous people) their living environment. It was created in 1983 to protect the catchment areas of five reservoirs developed under the Mahaweli scheme as well as to provide refuge for wildlife, in particular elephants. In fact it is considered one of Sri Lanka’s most valuable conservation areas for elephants and endemic birds. The park was extended in the east in 1985 to provide additional habitat for wildlife, bringing the total area to 58,850 hectares.There are ancient Buddhist ruins at many places inside the park, such as Henanigala, Kudawila, Gurukumbura, Uluketangoda, and Werapokuna.

In addition, there is much evidence of Sri Lanka’s hydraulic heritage. For instance, an ancient sluice in the old earthen bund of the Maduru Oya has been discovered, consisting of stone slabs and bricks. It is 12 metres, 12 metres wide and 90 metres long. The upper sluice was built in two stages, the first of which dates back to the 6th century BC. The lower sluice is believed to be even older.FloraMaduru Oya is surrounded on the west and north by Mahaweli development areas and on the south and east by teak plantations and jungle. The dominant feature is the 8-kilometre long range of mountains in the southwest of the park. Water bodies, which constitute over 15% of the total area of the park, include the Maduru Oya, Ulhitiya, Ratkinda, NDK, and Henanigala reservoirs, as well as the tributaries of the Mahaweli Ganga and Maduru Oya.The area is mostly tropical mixed evergreen forest, exhibiting such species as weera , burutha or satinwood , palu, welang , divul or woodapple , ehela and weliwenna.Fauna

Maduruoya is a well known elephant habitat Other species of mammal include a wide variety of wildlife are found here. Endemic purple monkey is among the important animal species that can be seen in addition to Sambhur, a member of the cat family etc. There is some endemic avifauna also found within this Park.Species of mammal include the Sri Lanka sloth bear, Sri Lanka leopard, water buffalo, slender loris, toque monkey, Sri Lanka grey languor, Sri Lanka jackal, Indian fishing cat, wild boar, barking deer, Sri Lanka spotted deer. & Aquatic species are plentiful, such as the painted stork or tantalus, white-bellied sea eagle, spot-billed pelican, great cormorant, and little cormorant. Forest species include the Sri Lanka jungle fowl, the very rare dollar bird or broad-billed roller, the tailor bird with its unique nest of leaves sewn together, the white-rumped shama, black-hooded oriole and red-faced malkoha.