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Sinharaja,The Magical Creation of Mother Nature

                                                                           

Sinharaja, a tropical rain forest which contains plenty of natural resources , natural secrets,biodiversity etc.

Sinharaja was consider as one of the major natural habitat in Sri Lanka. It is located at Southwest  part of the island,also its belongs to Sabaragamuwa and southern provinces.This magical rain forest spread among Galle, Mathara and Rathnapura Districts. Sinharaja forest is treasure trove of Rare flora and fauna.a considerable amount of villages depend on the forest's products for their income.

If we consider about how Sinharaja forest gets its name,actually  it's based on nice folk story. there was a threatening lion that lived in a cave situated in a place named "Sinhagala". The lion is said to have preyed on all animals living around "Sinhagala" and have posed deadly threats to people walking across the jungle . When the trouble from the lion began to increase, a brave youth called Lanka tactfully stoned the advancing lion to death.Even in today there is a small village call "Lanka Gama" in sinharaja forest.

Actually Sinharaja is a wonderful creation of mother nature. Sinharaja is a wet ever green tropical monsoon rain forest. At present world have only hand full of tropical primary rain forests. As Sri Lankans we can proud having  of this kind of  beautiful mysterious rain forest. Some parts of this forest reserve  didn't got any anthropocentric activities ever on its life. Those Areas where preserved as primary forest patches. with the aid of this primary we can find origin or wild type  of some plants, because of this reason we can named Sinharaja forest as a natural gene bank.

Sinharaja forest was declared as a forest as forest reserve on 1875 under the waste land ordinance. In 1978 it is declared as biosphere reserve.  Sinharaja forest became first natural world heritage site after it is declaered as man and biosphere reserve by UNESCO on 1989. According to the Gazette No 528 the total area of the national hertage wilderness area is 7,648 Ha.The area of the biosphere reserve and world heritage site cited in the respective nominations is 8,864, of which 6,092 Ha is forest reserve and 2,772Ha is a proposed forest reserve.

Pathanella water fa

Climate of Sinharaja

Annual rainfall of in ranged in from 3614mm to 5006 mm (meteorological department). Temperature ranged from 19 0C to 34 0C. Annul mean humidity is ranged from 75% to 80%.

Flora Of Sinharaja

Two main type of forests can be identified; remnants of Dipterocarpus forest occur in valleys and on their lower slopes. Mesua forest is the climax vegetation in most of the reserve. At present Sri Lanka has 3365  Angiosperm tree species.830 Angiosperm tree species are endemic to the Sri Lanka. Among these endemic Angiosperms 495 species were seen in the Sinharaja forest. In addition to that various number of native flora species can be seen in this valuable rain forest. we can see typical tropical forest layers in this forest such as Emergent layer, canopy layer, sub canopy layer, shrubs .The plants which height is over 35 m belongs to Emergent layer. Dipterocarpus zeylanicus (s-hora), Dipterocarpus hispidus (s-bu hora) , Shorea sp.are common species in emergent layer. The plants which height is ranged from 35-25 m are belongs to canopy layer. Artocarpus nobilis,Mangifera zeylanica (s-ataba), Mesua nagasariyum (s-na) are common in canopy layer of the Sinharaja forest.Due to continues connection of  tree of this layer solar radiation is reduced to the ground because of that plants of ground layer compete for the sun light, due to that we can observed equal size plants in ground layer. Plants which their height is ranged between 25-8 m are belongs to sub canopy layer e.g. Wormia triqvera (s-diyapara) , Dillenia retuse (S-godapara). Strobilunthus (S-nelu), Nepentheus (badura) are exampls for srubs and vines in Sinharaja forest. in addition to that lot of orchids, ground orchids, Moses,ferns  are record in Sinharaja.  

Nepenthes distillatoria

Endemic plant genera found in Sinharahja

1.	Schumacheria (Dilleniaceae)
2.	Trichadenia* (Flacourtiaceae)
3.	Stemonoporus (Dipterocarpaceae)
4.	Scutinanthe (Burseraceae)
5.	Pseadocarapa* (Meliaceae)
6.	Glenniea* (Sapindaceae)
7.	Leucocodon* (Rubiaceae)
8.	Schizostigma* (Rubiaceae)
9.	Championea* (Gesneriaceae)
10.	Hortonia (Monimiaceae)
11.	Podadeniya* (Euporbiaceae)
12.	Cyphostigma* (Zingiberaceae)
13.	Loxococcus* (Palmae)

Beddomia albizonata

 Fauna Of Sinharaja

The fauna diversity of Sinharaja is also as rich as flora diversity.Sinharaja is a home for many animals. Elephant is the largest mammal ever recorded in Sinharaja. Small herd of elephants live in Rakwana morning side area. leperd is the second largest mammal recorded in Sinharaja. In 2008 one black leopard specimen was found at morning side area.Indian palm cat, Sri lanka red slender loris , Sri Lanka Purple face leaf monkey, Giant Squirrel,Indian porcupine are some mammal spices record at Sinharaja forest.According to the researchers sinharaja has significant diversity on its invertebrate fauna. There are 65 butterfly species can seen in Sinharaja. 21 species amon them are endamic to Sri Lanka. Ceylon tree nymph, Common bird wing, Crimsomrose, blue bottle are some of the common butterflies at Sinharaja. Some butterfly species can be observe seasonally e.g.Blue oka leaf .

                              A few common  butterflies of Sinharaja

Common Name	Species Name
*Sri Lanka Tree Nymph	Idea lynceus jasonia
Glassy Tiger	Danaus aglea aglea
Common Bushbrown	Mycalesia perseus typhlus
*Sri Lanka Common Birdwing	Troides helena darsius
*Sri Lanka Clipper	Parthenos sylvia cyaneus
Common Banded Peacock	Papilio crino
*Sri Lanka Blue Mormon	Papilio polymnestor parinda
Common Mormon	Papilio polytes romulus
*Sri Lanka Red Helen	Papilio helenus mooreanus
*Sri Lanka Five-bar Swordtail	Graphium antiphates ceylonicus
*Sri Lanka Blue Oakleaf	Kallima philarchus philarchus
Great Eggfly	Hypolimnas bolina
Danaid Crow	Euploea sp.
Redspot Duke	Euthalia evelina evelina

Ceylon tree nymph

 Sinharaja rain forest is a habitat for 120  Land snail species(84 species are endemic). Acavus superbus, Beddomia albizonata, Ratnadivipia irradians, Cryptazona chenui some examples for land snails of Sinharaja.In addition to that sever invertebrate groups can be observe at Sinharaja forest such as dragonflies, fresh water crabs, ant species etc. 157 bird species recorded and 57 among them are endemic.Mixed species bird flocks are interesting experience of the forest. scientist thought that this action of  birds is for improving the feeding efficiency and gain protection from predators.  

Some Common Birds of Sinharaja Forest

• Crested Drongo
• Sri Lanka rufous babbler
• Srilankan White eye
• yelow browed bulbul
• Black bulbul
• black cap bulbul
• white headed starling
• Sri Lanka blue magpie
• Trogon
• Small minivet
• Sri lanka gracle
• Common myna



Sri Lankan Red faced malkoha

• Sri lankan Hanging parrot 

The reptile fauna of Sinharaja represented by 45 species and 21 species are endemic. The reptile fauna of Sinharaja forest is consist of large proportion of snakes ,several species of lizards,and skinks. Among the vanomous species that occur in the forest are the Green pit viper, Humped- nosed viper and the karti while the forest floor. Cobra is recorded occasionally.Among the Lizards of Sinharaja the commmon Lizard species are, Kangaro lizard, Green garden lizard and the Humped nosed Lizard, which is the largest lizard in Sri Lanka.In addtion to that there are some endemc and rare lizards were recorded in Sinharaja such as calotes liolepis,rough-nose lizard,Karunarathna's horned lizard      ( Ceratophora karu)

 Some common and important reptiles of Sinharaja.

Common Name	Species Name
Snakes
*Green-pit Viper	Trimerasurus trinoncephalus
Merrem's Hump-nosed Viper	Hypnale hypnale
Walli's Hump-nosed Viper	Hypnale walli
Russell's Viper	Vipera russelli
*Sri Lanka Krait	Bungarus ceylonicus
Common Cobra	Naja naja
*Sri Lanka Wolf-snake	Cercaspis carinatus
*Barnes Cat Snake	Boiga barnesi
*Kukri snake	Oligodon calamarius
*Dumeril's Kukri Snake	Oligodon sublinensis
**Blossom Krait	Balanophis ceylonensis
**Drummond-hays Rough Snake	Aspidura drummondhayi
*Gunther's Bronze-back	Dendrelaphis caudolineolatus
Green-whip Snake	Dryophis nasutus
Brown-speckled Whip Snake	Dryophis pulverulentus
Ornate Flying Snake	Chrysopelea ornata
*Chequered Keelback	Xenochrophis asperrimus
Python	Python molurus
*Sri Lanka Pipe Snake	Cylindrophis maculatus
*Deraniyagala's Earth Snake	Rhinophis tricolorata
**Black-spined Snake	Haplocercus ceylonensis
Lizards and Geckoes
Green Garden Lizerd	Calotes calotes
*-	Calotes liolepis
**Hump-nosed Lizard	Lyiocephalus scutatus
*Earless Lizard	Otriocephalus scutatus
**Rough-nose Horned Lizard	Ceratophora aspera
*Great Forest Gecko	Gymnodactylus frenatus
Jungle Gecko	Cnemaspis kandianus
Water Monitor	Varanus monitor
Skinks
Rat-snake Skink	Mabuya carinata
Spotted Skink	Mabuya macularia
Smooth Skink	Sphenomorphus taprobanensis
**Three-toed Snake Skink	Nessia burtoni

Green pit viper

Without a doubt this rain forest is excellent habitat for amphibians..It is proved by the nnumber of endemic amphibians recorded in Sinharaja, more than half of the endemic amphibians of Sri Lanka were found in Sinharaja . This Amphibian fauna is consist of frogs, toads and single limblesss form (Yello-banded caecillian)

   Access ways ot Sinharaja Forest

1. Kudawa entrance - Colombo --> Kalawana --> Kudawa
2. Pitadeniya Entrance - Galle or Matara --> Deniyaya --> Pitadeniya
3. Morning Side Entrance -- Galle or Matara --> Deniyaya --> Morning Side Estate

  

Sri lanka , the sixth best world best destination in 2012

National Geographic Traveler magazine has selected Sri lanka as sixth world best destination in 2012.we got this place because of our biodiversity, hospitality, and the climate. it has given lot of concentration about our Highlands.

Corrugated water Frog

Corrugated water Frog(Lankanectes corrugatus) is an endemic Amphibian to Sri Lanka. it is ver coomon in wet zone. The corrugated appearance of the dorsal part of the body is the identical character of this frog. this photograph was taken at Beraliya forest reserve. it's located at southern part of Sri Lanka.it is rarely found land near to water pits but it prefer dip in water streams, water pools. 

this species has lot of color morphs.