Tour Guide, Colombo, Sri Lanka
| 3 mins read
Though Sri Lanka is very small in land area, the great diversity in habitats harbors are a rich and diverse fauna and flora, with many species endemic to the island. Historically as well as in the modern era, successive rulers and governments of Sri Lanka have strived to provide sanctuary and protection to our beautiful wildlife. Today the demands and aspirations of an expanding human population makes it difficult for the government to be solely responsible for the protection, preservation and management of this beguiled wild heritage of ours. Today, especially where human interest and wildlife interest are in direct conflict. It is imperative that private organizations with resources step into and fill the areas that need immediate attention: environmental education, long term research, and to develop integrated projects for community based conservation.
Sri Lanka is ranked amongst the world’s twenty five biodiversity hot spots. As a country with high rate of endemism it has many faunal groups including birds , mammals , reptiles and amphibians which you can not find anywhere in the world. It is world renowned as one of the best places to watch elephants and leopards for nature enthusiastic and photographers. There are season for elephant gathering where large concentration of wild elephants together can be seen during that time at a place known as Minneriya in the north central province of the country. Primate safaris are arranged with cultural tours as it is possible to find wide range of primates in place surrounded by cultural heritages mainly in the dry zone. During the early part of the year ( January-April) , the largest animal ever lived in the world you may guess as ‘ blue whale’ can be seen in off shores of southern city Galle. Sinharaja, the tropical rainforest of the country is the place to glue one’s eyes on to the world’s largest mixed species of birds flocking together.
One of the key reasons which makes Sri Lanka a popular wild life destination is the availability of expertise , well trained field guides and simple photographic guides, booklets and posters of key wild life attractions such as elephants, leopards, birds, butterflies , primates and floral species to the enthusiast. Sri Lankan tour operators too are equipped with sophisticated technologies , marketing strategies and high caliber service levels to attract ever increasing tourist both from west and east with wild life as main interest for significant proportion of them. Communication is no barrier as in Sri Lanka as tourist industry professionals are well equipped with skills in English and even with other foreign languages to respond the needs of the foreign visitors effectively. There are several National parks, of these the best know is the Ruhunu (Yala) National park in the deep south of the island. The other parks are Gal Oya, Udawalawe, Wasgomuwa, Minneriya, Wilpattu and Horton Plains. The topography and vegetation change from park to park, even the flora and founa. Most common in these parks are elephants and birdlife.