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Natural Sri Lanka

Take one step from the door of the Mango House Villa and you are entering the rich landscape of Sri Lanka, which offers you a breathtaking choice of wonderful holiday experiences.

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Wildlife

Although Sri Lanka is relatively small in land mass, it harbors a rich and diverse wildlife, with many species endemic to the island. Sri Lanka's tropical environment and long standing traditions to protect all forms of life have created a haven for biodiversity of global significance, such as the Sinharaja Forest Reserve a Biosphere reserve and UNESCO Natural World Heritage site.

Sri Lanka has nearly fourteen per cent of her land area earmarked for the conservation of wildlife, of which twelve per cent are Protected Areas under the Department of Wildlife Conservation. This is one of the largest conservation schemes in south Asia.

So wether it be animal, bird, botanical, insect or marine Sri Lanka can offer you some of this planets most beautiful sights.

Botanical Gardens

The Dutch introduced the first botanic gardens, which were located at Slave Island, Colombo, in order to cultivate European fruits and vegetables fulfil a cultural dietary imperative. However, the tropical lowlands of the island the Dutch held were not suitable for the fulfilment of such a cultural dietary imperative, so after the British took control in 1796, the gardens were abandoned. Frederick North, the first governor of Ceylon, set up his own private garden fruit and vegetable garden at Peliyagoda, supervised by Joseph Joinville, who was the Clerk for Natural History and Agriculture. And until he left in 1804, General MacDowell, the senior military officer, imported plants from the East India Company's botanical garden at Calcutta. But these efforts were modest in extent.

Sinharaja Biosphere Reserve

The Sinharaja biosphere reserve is one of the least disturbed and biologically unique lowland rain forests in Sri lanka. This forest covers an extent of about 11,187 hectares from east to west .The length of the forest is about 21km and width from North to South is about 3.7km. It was declared a Man and Biosphere Reserve (MAB) in 1978,as representative of tropical humid evergreen forest Eco system in Sri Lanka and has been recognized by UNESCO as part of its International Network of Biosphere reserves. It was declared a National wilderness area in 1988 and lately a world heritage site in 1989. It is situated in the southwest lowland wet zone of the country in the districts of Ratnapura, Galle and Matara. The average annual temperature of Sinharaja is 23.6 C. Annual rainfall is more than 2500mm.The rain fall is well distributed during two monsoons, May to July and October to December.

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage

There is no animal so closely linked to a country like the elephant is to Sri Lanka. These beautiful creatures play a very important role within daily life, culture and heritage of Sri Lanka. The Pinnawela orphanage is in a word 'Magical' and a must see for any visitor to Sri Lanka.
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Hot Travel News

Last One in's a... Beach bum? Culture vulture? Intrepid adventurer? On Sri Lanka’s south coast, you can be all three. By Jeremy Lazell published on Sunday 21st September 2008 in The Sunday Times travel guide.