Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home

Sri Lankan elephants (Elephas maximus maximus) are considered as an endangered species and their survival in their natural habitats is threatened due to human activities. Consequently elephants in the wild are constantly being killed and many elephant calves become orphaned. Therefore in 1995, Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka, in an attempt to support the orphaned calves from the other areas of the island, set up the Elephant Transit Centre (ETC) within Udawalawe National Park itself with the support of Born Free Foundation. The park was established under the 29th Amendment to the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance Part II Currently 39 orphaned elephant calves are being looked after. The elephant calves are released to the jungle after they become strong enough to survive in their natural habitats. As of 2008, sixty-five elephants have been released to the jungle.
The main objective of this centre is rehabilitation of orphaned baby elephants until they grow stronger and are released into their natural habitat. Therefore Department of Wildlife Conservation plays a major role in this procedure. Furthermore to improve the facilities at Elephant Transit Centre, the department has decided to obtain the participation of public as well as private sector assistance to look after the elephants, launching the Foster-Parent Scheme. The expected cost of look after a baby elephant is high. The donations mainly for milk and medicines.

Look after of the baby elephants is entirely done by the specially trained working staff. Outsiders could not allowed to reach beyond the fences. There is perfect veterinary programme conducted by the centre for 24 hours. The elephants are kept at part of an Udawalawa National Park to familiar with their habitat. The visitors can watch the elephants during their feeding times.

Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens: History

The origins of the Botanic Gardens dates as far back as 1371 when King Wickramabahu III ascended the throne and kept court at Peradeniya near Mahaweli river this was followed by King Kirti Sri and King Rajadhi Rajasinghe. A temple was build on this location by King Wimala Dharma but it was destroyed by the British when they were given control over the Kandyan Kingdom. There after the ground work for a Botanical Garden were formed by Mr Alexandar Moon in 1821. Botanical Garden at Peradeniya were formally established and plants from Kew Garden at Slave island, Colombo and from the Kalutara Garden in Kalutara were moved up until 1843. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya was made more independent and expanded under Mr George Gardner as its superintendent in 1844. The gardens came under the administration of the Department of Agriculture when it was established in 1912.

The Classical Avenue of Palms is located in this Garden. One tree with a significant history is the Cannon ball Tree planted by King George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary in 1901. The tree is bent with its fruits which looks like Cannon Ball, which is how it came to be named.

It also used during the Second World War by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the supreme commander of the allied forces in the South Asia as the headquarters of the South East Asia Command.

Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens, Kandy, Sri Lanka

The finest of its kind in Asia
Peradeniya Botanical gardens, the finest of its kind in Asia, the largest of the three botanical gardens in the island, couldn't be better located. In the Mediterranean climate of Kandy, the gateway to the central highlands, the Gardens were bounded on three sides by a loop of river Mahaweli.
4000 labelled species
A signboard at the entrance, with a map, feature a numbered circuit from 1-30. The corresponding numbers are placed at strategic points on the route, black on a yellow background. 60 ha (150 acres) gardens, where you can easily stroll around a whole day, are stuffed with a bewildering variety of local & foreign tree & plant species. There are around ten thousand plants & trees inclusive of 4000 labelled species. One of the most interesting sites here is bizarre-looking snake creeper, whose tangles area roots look just like a writhing knot of vipers.
Avenues
The Cabbage Palm Avenue from the South America was planted in 1905. Walking along the stately avenue of Royal Palms (1885) we find fruit bats in large colonies hanging in the trees. Oh! Yes, true to their style, upside down. The River drive goes through a great circle, a large grassy central area around which a remarkably diverse array of dignitaries has planted further specimens.

The Accidental planters
Alongside generations of English royalty, there are trees planted by Indira Gandhi, Yuri Gagarin, Marshal Tito, U Thant & Harold Macmillan. Between the great circle & the great lawn is the Herbarium. Then there is an arboretum.

Lawns, pavilions, sandwiches & a cup of tea
There are extensive well-kept lawns, pavilions, an Octagon Conservatory, fernery, banks of Burmese, Chinese & Japanese bamboos & numerous flower borders with cannas, hibiscus, chrysanthemums, croton & colourful bougainvillaea. You will see unusual exotic species, especially palms (Palmyra, talipot, royal, cabbage) & Ficus elastica (latex-bearing fig or "Indian rubber tree" with buttress roots), an amazing avenue of drunken looking pines & some magnificent old specimens trees. In all, there are about 4000 labelled species.

Cannonball avenue
Cannonball Avenue is lined with beautiful cannonball trees, wreathed in creepers from which hang the large, round fruits. These Sal trees are loved by the Sinhalese. The flowers have a singular shape: a tiny stupa shaped bud in the centre is shaded by a cobra like hood & surrounded by tiny florettes which resemble a crowd of worshipers. It is believed Prince Siddhartha (who was to become Gautama Buddha) was born in a park of Sal trees called Lumbini, near the Sakyan kingdom of Kapilavastu in then north India, now the southern region of Nepal.
Talipot palms
Talipot palms are the easiest to identify with its enormous leaves. The talipot palm is one of Sri Lanka's botanical celebrities, an arboreal oddity which flowers just once in its lifetime, after about forty years, producing the largest cluster of flowers in the world. In Kandyan times the enormous leaves reaching a height of 10 m were used to make tents by sewing a couple of leaves together. "One single Leaf being so broad & large, that it will cover some fifteen or twenty men, & keep them dry when it rains" wrote Robert Knox. Talpot leaves were utilized to produce fine ultra long lasting solid parchments called Ola, in Sri Lanka & India as early as in 500 BC. Young talipot leaves were boiled, dried in the sun, exposed to dew & smoothed & stretched. The treated leaves were then engraved with writing using steel stylus to cut in the characters. Then the engraved leaf was smeared with ink made out of a resin blended with finely powdered charcoal. The great chronicle of Sri Lanka (Mahawamsa) & all other ancient books were written on these treated, cut & loosely bound talipot palm-leaf parchments.

Artificial lake
In the centre of the Gardens is an artificial lake with water plants including the giant water lily & papyrus reeds. Beside the lake is a white-domed rotunda commemorates George Gardener, the Superintendent of the park during 1844-1849. Few Victorian travellers can have been so appropriately named as George Gardener (1812-1849), the botanist. Gardener collected thousands of specimens during his four years of explorations in Brazil & was responsible for importing rubber as well as cinchona. Both of these imports have been blessings to the island; rubber becoming a prime export & bark of cinchona tree producing anti malaria drug quinine.

Coco de Mer
One of the rarest plants in the world, Coco de Mer is on a path leading to this monument of Gardner. This plant has the largest & heaviest fruit or nut in the plant kingdom, weighing an average some10 - 20 kg. They take between five to eight years to mature & are surprisingly productive. It is not unusual to have 20 nuts on a tree. They are all carefully numbered. Native Coco de Mer are only found in Praslin, an island in the Seychelles. Strolling along the path we reach lily tank which is surrounded by giant bamboo, some 40m tall that grows 2-3 cm a day.

Suspension Bridge
Halfway around River Drive is the Suspension Bridge across the River Mahaweli, which takes us to the School of Tropical Agriculture at Gannoruwa, where research is carried out into various important spices & medicinal herbs as well as into tea, coffee, coca, rubber, coconuts & varieties of rice & other cash crops.

From-www.mysrilankaholidays.com

Eco-Tourism in Unawatuna

Unawatuna is rich in its biodiversity. Unfortunately, its greatest potential attraction for eco-tourism was the marsh land or mangrove called Kadolana which was completely destroyed, dredged and filled up to build a chain hotel which never got off the ground. Many locals believe it to have been cursed for being built at the doorstep of the Wella Devalaya.

Over sixty species of endemic birds, including Terns, Egrets, Herons, Sandpipers, Kingfishers, as well as rarer species such as the Lesser Whistling Duck, the Asian Palm Swift, the White Breasted Waterhen, the Turnstone Loten's Sunbird, and theBlack Bittern have been sighted in the locality by the ornithologist, Clive Byers. These birds are mostly sighted in the remaining marshy area and Rumassala Hillock.

Off the coast of Unawatuna, beneath the Indian Ocean lies a number of coral reefs, shipwrecks, and a great variety of fish and turtles. The turtles still wade onto the shore to lay their nests and eggs, and at times, as if to lay first claim to the sandy shore now invaded by the tourists and dotted by restaurateurs, even go right into the beach front restaurants .

The Rumassala coral reefs at the east end of the Galle Harbor attract divers, but are now endangered due to possible port development. Eco treks in the shrub jungles of Rumassala are also available.

From -wikipedia

Mythical roots about Unawatuna

From Ramayana

The description of the beach paradises in Valmiki's epic Ramayana sounds like Unawatuna.

"a seashore dotted with thousands of trees, coconuts, and palms dominating, strings of houses and hermitages along the coastline, human beings and superior beings such as Gandharvas, Siddhas, and ascetics, living in them and countless bejewelled celestial nymphs thronging the shore, the coast intermittently visited by heavenly beings, Gods and demons.":

Unawatuna traces its roots to the great epic Ramayana. In the mythological epic, the monkey-warrior Hanuman was sent back to India to fetch the four medicinal herbs by Jambavan namely, mritasanjeevani, vishalyakarani, suvarnakarani, and sandhani from the Himalayas in order to heal Lakshman who was wounded trying to save the abducted Princess Sita from the demon king Ravana. Hanuman failed to identify these herbs, so he lifted the entire mountain and carried it to the battlefield to try to save Lakshman, but in the process, a chunk of it "fell-down" in the location of the present day Unawatuna, the name of the village derives from "Una-watuna" meaning "fell down".

Currently, an edifice is being built in honour of Hanuman on the harbour end of Rumassala Hill by Japanese monks of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism near the Peace Pagoda that they built.

Alternate mythology

A banished Indian Prince was shipwrecked and the Goddess of Earth, Manimekala, taking pity created a rocky shelf for him to save his life and that subsequently he headed to Unawatuna. The Goddess of Chastity, Pattini, created a wall of fire to prevent him coming ashore, but being a person of some supreme power, he set in motion a tsunami with his foot to extinguish the fire and set foot on the shores of Unawatuna.

It is said that he lived in Unawatuna and helped the people in various ways. Over the years he has been venerated and worshiped, and the Kovil (or Devalaya) on the west end point of the bay which has a history of over a thousand years is believed to be the abode of this Devol deity.

Unawatuna beach

Unawatuna Beach is located just south of Galle, 125km from Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. It is perfectly situated, small and highly sought-after bay on Sri Lanka's less-developed South coast. This beautiful stretch of beach lies 4 km to the south of Galle. Unawatuna, located 4km’s southward around the coast of Galle, is a beach resort waiting to happen. This 4km expanse of palm-fringed sand is said by some to rank amongst the twelve best beaches in the world. Unawatuna, is still far from being over-developed. But this beach is a paradise for all those who yearn to listen to the silence of the sea and dive deep into the blue waters of the ocean. There is a reef protecting the beach, which makes it perfectly safe for bathing. Other major attractions of this south coast beach include providing shallow waters for swimming, and diving. Within its reach it has an accessible, reasonably well-preserved coral reef that serves as the base for snorkeling. For all those who fancy scuba diving, this tropical bay at the south of the coast of Galle will definitely catch your fancy since for the scuba divers, there are several wreck dives only 20-30 minutes away from the beach by boat .Thus it is the most favored beach for all those looking for some exciting water sport activity like swimming, scuba diving or snorkeling.

www.asiarooms.com

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage is an orphanage and breeding ground for wild elephants which is situated northwest of the town of Kegalle, Sri Lanka. It was established in 1975 by the Department of Wildlife Conservation on a 25-acre (10 ha) coconut plantation on the Maha Oya river. The orphanage was originally founded in order to afford care and protection to the many orphaned elephants found in the jungle. As of 2008, there were 84 elephants.

The aim of the orphanage is to simulate the natural world. However, there are some exceptions: the elephants are taken to the river twice daily for a bath, and all the babies under three years of age are still bottle fed by the mahouts and volunteers. Each animal is also given around 76 kilograms (170 lb) of green manure a day and around 2 kg (4.4 lb) from a food bag containing rice bran and maize. They get access to water twice a day, from the river.

This elephant orphanage is also a breeding place for elephants. More than twenty-three elephants have been born since 1984, and the orphanage has the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. While most of the elephants are healthy, one is blind, and one, named Sama, has lost her front right leg to a land mine.