List of waterfalls

Waterfall	Height[1][2]	Location	Province
Aberdeen Falls	98 m (322 ft)	Aberdeen	Central
Dethiri Ella	30 m (98 ft)	Dolosbage	Central
Ahupini Ella	10 m (33 ft)	Berawila	Central
Alakola Falls	60 m (197 ft)
Baker's Falls	20 m (66 ft)	Horton Plains National Park	Central
Bambarakanda Falls	263 m (863 ft)	Kalupahana	Uva
Bomburu Ella		Perawella	Uva
Bopath Ella Falls	30 m (98 ft)	Ratnapura	Sabaragamuwa
Delta Falls	60 m (197 ft)
Dessford Falls	20 m (66 ft)
Devon Falls	97 m (318 ft)	Talawakele	Central
Diyaluma Falls	220 m (722 ft)	Koslanda	Uva
Doovili Ella	40 m (131 ft)		Central
Dunhinda Falls	63 m (207 ft)	Badulla	Uva
Elgin Falls	25 m (82 ft)	Ambewela	Central
Ethamala Falls	52 m (171 ft)	Akurassa	Southern
Galboda Ella	30 m (98 ft)[3]	Nawalapitiya	Central
Galdola Falls	100 m (328 ft)
Garandi Ella	100 m (328 ft)	Balangoda	Central
Gartmore Falls	20 m (66 ft)	Maskeliya
Glain Falls	10 m (33 ft)		Central
Handapan Ella	200 m (656 ft)
Handun Ella	30 m (98 ft)
Hathmale Falls	45 m (148 ft)	Deniyaya	Southern
Huluganga Falls	75 m (246 ft)	Huluganga Town
Hunnas Falls	60 m (197 ft)	Elkaduwa	Central
Kalupahana Falls	10 m (33 ft)
Kirindi Ella	116 m (381 ft)	pelmadulla;
Kothmale Mahakandura Falls	10 m (33 ft)
Kurunduoya Falls	206 m (676 ft)		Central
Laxapana Falls	129 m (423 ft)	Hatton	Central
Lihinihela Ella	200 m (656 ft)
Lovers Leap	30 m (98 ft)	Nuwara Eliya	Central
Madanagiri Falls	70 m (230 ft)
Mahakandura Falls	120 m (394 ft)
Manawela Falls	22 m (72 ft)
Mannakethi Ella	60 m (197 ft)
Mapanana Falls	148 m (486 ft)	Gilimale
Nakkawita Falls	100 m (328 ft)
Nanuoya Falls	60 m (197 ft)		Central
Okandagala Falls	63 m (207 ft)
Oolu Ella	200 m (656 ft)
Peessa Ella		Lunugala	Uva
Puna Falls	100 m (328 ft)		Central
Pundalu Oya Falls	100 m (328 ft)
Ramboda Falls	109 m (358 ft)	Pussellawa	Central
Rathna Falls	101 m (331 ft)		Central
Ravana Falls	25 m (82 ft)	Ella	Uva
Rawan Ella		Uduhawara	Uva
Sampath Ella	30 m (98 ft)
St. Clair's Falls	80 m (262 ft)	Hatton	Central
Seetha Kotuwa Falls	60 m (197 ft)
Sri Pada Falls	75 m (246 ft)
Yaka Andu Ella	60 m (197 ft)
Windsor Forest Falls	10 m (33 ft)

Yala national park

Yala National Park is the most visited and second largest national park in Sri Lanka. The park consists of five blocks, two of which are now open to the public, and also adjoining parks. The blocks have individual names such as, Ruhuna National Park (block 1) andKumana National Park or 'Yala East' for the adjoining area. It is situated in the southeast region of the country, and lies inSouthern Province and Uva Province. The park covers 979 square kilometres (378 sq mi) and is located about 300 kilometres (190 mi) from Colombo. Yala was designated as a wildlife sanctuary in 1900, and, along with Wilpattu was one of the first two national parks in Sri Lanka, having been designated in 1938. The park is best known for its variety of wild animals. It is important for the conservation of Sri Lankan Elephants and aquatic birds.

There are six national parks and three wildlife sanctuaries in the vicinity of Yala. The park is situated in the dry semi-arid climatic region and rain is received mainly during the northeast monsoon. Yala hosts a variety of ecosystems ranging from moist monsoon forests to freshwater and marine wetlands. It is one of the 70 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Sri Lanka. Yala harbours 215 bird species including six endemic species of Sri Lanka. The number of mammals that has been recorded from the park is 44, and it has one of the highest leopard densities in the world.

The area around Yala has hosted several ancient civilisations. Two important pilgrim sites, Sithulpahuwa and Magul Vihara, are situated within the park. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused severe damage on the Yala National Park and 250 people died in its vicinity. The number of visitors has been on the rise since 2009 after the security situation in the park improved.

Physical features

Water is abundant after the northeast monsoon, but during the dry season surface water becomes an important factor. The bodies of surface water appear in the forms of streams, tanks, waterholes, rock pools, and lagoons. Waterholes occur in low lying places while rock pools of varying size are capable of containing water year-round, and are hence an important source of water for elephants. For many water birds and water buffaloes natural waterholes are ideal habitats. Such reservoirs are largely concentrated to the Block I followed by Block II. Several tanks are there including, Maha Seelawa, Buthawa, Uraniya, and Pilinnawa tanks.^[2] Many rivers and streams flow in a southeasterly direction, originating in the highlands of adjacent Uva and central hills. Kumbukkan Oya in the east and Menik River and its tributaries in the west flow across the park, and provide an important water source in the dry season to wild animals of the park. Normally the streams of the park are dry during the drought season. These rivers and streams exhibit a degree of runoff fluctuations between wet and dry seasons. Kumbukkan Oya discharges seven times as much water in the rainy season than in the dry season. A number of lagoons are situated along the coast line of the park.^[3] There are several routes to get to Yala from Colombo, while the route via Ratnapura and Tissamaharama is the shortest with 270 kilometres (170 mi).^[2]The Yala area is mostly composed of metamorphic rock belonging to the Precambrian era and classified into two series, Vijayan series and Highland series. Reddish brown soil and low humic grey soil are prominent among six soil types. Yala is situated in the lowest peneplain of Sri Lanka, which extends from Trincomalee to Hambantota. Topographically the area is a flat and mildly undulating plain that runs to the coast with elevation is 30 metres (98 ft) close to the coast while rising in the interior to 100–125 metres (328–410 ft). The national park is situated in the dry semi-arid climatic region and rain is received mainly during the northeast monsoon. The mean annual rainfall ranges between 500–775 millimetres (19.7–30.5 in) while the mean temperature ranges between 26.4 °C (79.5 °F) in January to 30 °C (86 °F) in April. It is windier in Yala, during the southwest monsoon compared to the wind during the northeast monsoon with wind speeds from 23 kilometres per hour (14 mph) to 15 kilometres per hour (9.3 mph).^[3]

Elephant Orpanage

History

 

Elephants walking to the Maha Oya river

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was first established by the Sri Lankan Department of Wildlife Conservation in 1975 for feeding and providing care and sanctuary to orphaned baby elephants that were found in the wild. The orphanage was first located at the Wilpattu National Park, then shifted to the tourist complex at Bentota and then to the Dehiwala Zoo. From the Zoo it was shifted to Pinnawala village on a 25-acre (10 ha) coconut plantation adjacent to the Maha Oya River.

The primary residential care area is on the east side of Highway B199, Rambukkana Road. The main site also has some restaurants / refreshment stands, and management buildings including sleeping sheds and veterinary facilities. The elephant bathing and viewing area along the Oya River is directly opposite on the west side of the highway.^[3][4]

At the time it was finally settled, the orphanage had five baby elephants which formed its nucleus. The addition of orphans continued till 1995 when the Elephant Transit Home (ETH) adjoining Udawalawe National Park was created by the DWC. Since then, orphaned babies have been taken to the ETH and addition to the Pinnawala herd has been mostly through births occurring there.^[1]

It was planned for the facility to attract local and foreign visitors, the income from which would help to maintain the orphanage. The Pinnawala Orphanage has since become a tourist attraction. In 1978, the orphanage was taken over by the Department of National Zoological Gardens Sri Lanka. In 1982 an elephant breeding program was launched. As of 2012, there were 78 elephants living here.^[5]

Tourists can observe the bathing elephants from the broad river bank as the herd interacts socially, bathing and playing. The orphanage is open to the public daily, and all admission fees are used to look after the elephants.^{[citation needed]} Visitors to the park can view the care and daily routine of the elephants, such as bottle feeding of elephant calves, feeding of all other elephants, and bathing in the Ma Oya (River).

Elephant care

Handling an elephant at Pinnawala

The orphanage was established to feed, nurse and house young elephants found abandoned by their mothers. Young elephants sometimes fall into pits and ravines in their quest for water during drought period. Other orphans have been displaced from their wild habitat by development projects or have been found abandoned before weaning, diseased or wounded.^[2]

There are 48 mahouts (handlers) who take care of the elephants. The female and young elephants in Pinnawala range freely as a herd during the day in an area of a few acres. They are herded about .5 km (0.31 mi) twice a day to drink and be bathed in the river. At night, the females are individually chained in stalls. Adult males are do some light work such as transporting feed. They are chained and managed individually, Calves born in Pinnawala are not bottle fed, but a few from ETH are kept at Pinnawala and bottle fed as a tourist attraction.^[1]

The elephants are fed in their stalls. There is very little food they can gather from the premises of the orphanage except some grass. Large quantities of jackfruit, coconut, kitul (sugar palm), tamarind and grass, brought in daily, form the bulk of the elephants food.^[5] Each adult animal is given around 76 kilograms (168 lb) of this green matter per day and around 2 kg (4.4 lb) from a food bag containing rice bran and maize.^[2]

Elephant breeding

Baby elephants with their mothers at Pinnawala

This elephant orphanage is also conducts captive breeding of some elephants in its care. The natural environment and healthy care and feeding at Pinnawala made the elephant breeding program a success. The first birth at Pinnawala was in 1984, Sukumalee, a female was born to Vijaya and Kumar who were aged 21 and 20 years respectively at the time. The males Vijaya and Neela and females Kumari, Anusha, Mathalie and Komali have since then parented several baby elephants. More than twenty-three elephants were born from 1984 to 1991. In 1998 there were fourteen births at Pinnawala, eight males and six females, with one second generation birth in early 1998. Since then till early 2012, 84 more were born at Pinnawala.^[2][6]

12 elephants were released to temples and private owners since June, 2011. Shama (female, aged 24), Lasanda (female, aged 18), Mihindu (male, aged 13), Haritha (male, aged 10 years), Atlas (male, aged seven), Charaka (male, aged five), Asela (male aged 8), Tharindu (male aged 5), Wasana ( Male aged 11), Arjuna ( male aged 14) and Vishwa (male aged 5) were among those.^[6]

Tourists observing elephants bathing in Oya River

Animal welfare

Most of the elephants at Pinnawala are healthy and once attaining adulthood, will be sold or donated or retained for breeding. A few disabled elephants are given residential care. One tusker, Raja is blind, and one female, named Sama, lost her front right leg to a land mine.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is was the subject of a 2010 report by the Born Free Foundation which calls into question the animal welfare at the orphanage.^[3]

Quality of care of elephants who are donated or sold away from Pinnawala has been a big public issue. In 2012 The Sri Lanka Environment Trust spoke out against authorities who continue to 'donate' tamed elephants to people who had 'poor' past records of taking care of animals. "There are enough cases to show that the authorities are releasing elephants from Pinnawala to the same group of people who don't take care of the animals." Though officials boast that the animals are under close surveillance, they don't do any monitoring once an elephant is released to a private owner.^[6]

The nature environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species.^[1] The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components:

·         Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation,microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere, and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries

·         Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy,radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from civilized human activity

The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans belonging to a civilized (i.e. hierarchically structured, agricultural, densely populated, complexly systematized) society. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment.

It is difficult to find absolutely natural environments, and it is common that the naturalness varies in a continuum, from ideally 100% natural in one extreme to 0% natural in the other. More precisely, we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment, and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform.^[2] If, for instance, we take an agricultural field, and consider the mineralogic compositionand the structure of its soil, we will find that whereas the first is quite similar to that of an undisturbed forest soil, the structure is quite different.

Natural environment is often used as a synonym for habitat. For instance, when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is thesavanna.