Sinharaja National Park
Sinharaja National Park is a national park in the southwest of Sri Lanka, which is the remnant of an ancient forest that once covered the terrestrial continent of Gondwanna. A huge historical continent fragmented, and only a small piece with an area of about 90 km2 preserved the appearance of the forests of that time. According to folk legends, the forest used to be called "Sinhalay Makalana", which in translation meant "forest with invisible borders", then it was called "Raja Sinhalay Vanaya", meaning "Royal Sinhalay Forest", and later it became simply Sinharaja.
The Legend of Sinharaja
The park's name literally means "lion" (sinha) and "king" (raja). According to legend, the Sinha people originated in these forests, through the union of a lion and a princess who lived in this forest. The country's flag depicts the ancestors of the Sinha.
Sinharaja is located on a picturesque range of 9 mountains, of which Sinhagala is the most prominent, and it is often to this mountain that tourist guides lead tourists. It is easy and accessible to anyone to follow this route, and only excessive humidity can cause a complication, as up to 5,000 mm of precipitation falls here. The views from the mountain will instantly cover all the hardships experienced during the ascent.
Flora and fauna of Sinharaja Park
Sinharaja National Park is surrounded by mountains with rushing rivers, which has created a unique flora and fauna far from everyone else. The forest here is multi-tiered, which are peculiar in their own way. Sinharaja Forest impresses with huge crowns of trees, reaching a height of 50 meters. Over 60% of the park's trees are endemic and do not grow anywhere else. Here you can meet eagles, bats, giant bats, langurs, giant squirrels, white-tailed ratufas. Due to the fact that the weather here is the same all year round, you can immediately see the flowering, flowering, and fruiting of plants.
There is a middle tier between the edges of the trees and the forest floor. In this tier, the life of birds is in full swing. amphibians and reptiles. 21 species of birds out of 26 rare for Sri Lanka have been recorded in Sinharaja National Park, including dark blue flycatchers, yellow-eared bulbuls, and rocket-tailed drongs. There are a lot of butterflies fluttering in the twilight in the forest, among Eros's windula, Elena's ornithopters, and endemic sailboats. The leaves here are narrow, which is why the water drains quickly and microbes do not multiply on them, and moss does not grow.
