Wasgamuwa National Park was originally declared as strict nature reserve in 1938 and then change to a national park in 1984. The park lies within central and north- central provinces. The total park area is 39,322 ha.
Park consists of riverine forest, dry mixed evergreen forest, grasslands and wetlands. As park is almost surrounded by Mahaweli & Amban Rivers, riverine forest area is fairly large.
Flora of the park consists of Palu (Manilkara hexandra), Weera (Drypetes sepiaria), Satin (Chloroxylon swietenia), Wa (Cassia roxburghii), Gal Siyambala (Dialium ovoideum) and Ebony (Diospyros ebenum). The riverine forest dominated by Kumbuk (Terminalia arjuna), Mee (Madhuca longifoloa) and Thimbiri (Diospyros malabarica). Grasslands mainly consist of (Imperata cylindrica).
Wasgamuwa is famous as an elephant habitat. These elephants are known to be less habituated to people and are more wildish. Other than elephant, leopard, sloth bear, sambhur, spotted and barking deer, wild boar and wild buffalo are also found here. Torque Macaque, Purple face leaf monkey and nocturnal slender Loris is also found in the park. Lesser Adjutant, Wooly necked stork, open bill, painted stork, Racket tailed Drongo, Yellow fronted barbet, Sri Lanka Junglefowl & Spurfowl are among the over 100 species of birds found within the park.
How to get there
Wasgomuwa can be reached through Matale and Hettipola or from Dehiattakandiya coming from Polonnaruwa or from Mahiyangana.
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