Maduru Oya National Park

Maduru Oya National Park

Province :   North-Central Province Area :  588 sq. km Altitude: 30 - 150  m Vegetation :  Dry mixed evergreen

Maduru Oya National Park   acts as a catchment of the Maduru Oya Reservoir . Famous for Elephants and a community of Vedda people, the indigenous ethnic group of Sri Lanka lives within the park boundary in Henanigala where Buddhist ruins of shrines, temples, dagobas, statues, and hermitages are found in Henanigala belonging to various periods of Sri Lankan history.

15 % of the park’s surface area is taken up by water bodies, mainly the huge Maduru Oya reservoir. The reservoir was first built by damming the Maduru Oya river in 272 AD.  The remnants of the ancient sluice gate still exists. 

Maduru Oya home to over 40 species of mammal, over 30 species of reptile and close to 300 species of avifauna. An estimated 30 – 40 species of amphibian inhabit the catchment area.

Other than elephants numbering about 150 -200, leopards, sloth bears, Sambhur, spotted and barking deer, wild boar and wild buffalo, Torque Macaque, Purple-faced leaf monkey and nocturnal slender Loris are also found in the park. The park's diverse aquatic avifauna includes painted stork, white-bellied sea eagle, grey pelican, great cormorant, and little cormorant, Sri Lanka junglefowl Gallus , rare broad-billed roller etc.

Vedda People:

Sri Lanka’s Veddha people inhabited the island long before its current tribes and settlers but are little-known outside of the country. They were the first inhabitants, who arrived from India when Sri Lanka was still connected to the rest of Asia. These Stone Age hunter-gatherers have more racial affinities with African Bushmen and Australian Aborigines than with any of the island’s other later settlers. The Veddhas themselves trace their ancestry back to Prince Vijaya who is also traditionally regarded as the progenitor of the Sinhalese. These communities are the last, untouched (by modern civilisation) Vedda colonies on the island, and serve as an extraordinary example of Sri Lanka’s ancient, indigenous cultures which are unfortunately, on the threshold of “cultural” extinction.