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.
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| 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.
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| 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) |
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| 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 |
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| Ceylon tree nymph |
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 Hanging parrot
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| Sri Lankan Red faced malkoha |
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)
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 |
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| 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
- Kudawa entrance - Colombo --> Kalawana --> Kudawa
- Pitadeniya Entrance - Galle or Matara --> Deniyaya --> Pitadeniya
- Morning Side Entrance -- Galle or Matara --> Deniyaya --> Morning Side Estate
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