1905 (Wildlife sanctuary) 25 December 1938 (National park)
Governing body
Department of Wildlife Conservation
Ramsar Wetland
Official name
Wilpattu Ramsar Wetland Cluster
Designated
2 February 2013
Reference no.
2095[1]
Wilpattu National Park (Sinhala: විල්පත්තු ජාතික වනෝද්යානය) is a national park in Sri Lanka. The unique feature of this park is the existence of "Willus" (natural lakes) – natural, sand-rimmed water basins or depressions that fill with rainwater. Located on the northwest coast lowland dry zone of Sri Lanka, the park is 30 km (19 mi) west of Anuradhapura and 26 km (16 mi) north of Puttalam (approximately 180 km (110 mi) north of Colombo). The park is 1,317 km2 (508 sq mi) (131,693 hectares) in area and ranges from 0–152 m (0–499 ft) above sea level. Nearly one hundred and six lakes (Willu) and tanks are found spread throughout Wilpattu. Wilpattu is the largest and one of the oldest national parks in Sri Lanka. Wilpattu is world-renowned for its leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) population. A remote camera survey conducted in Wilpattu from July to October 2015 by the Wilderness and Wildlife Conservation Trust captured photographs of forty-nine individual leopards in the surveyed area, the core area density of which was between that of Yala National Park's Block I and Horton Plains National Park.[2]
A second, more extensive camera trap survey was conducted from May to September 2018 by Samarasinghe et al. (2022), covering a substantial area of the national park, approximately 660 km2, and capturing a total of 133 individual leopards.[3] This count comprised 116 independent leopards (aged over 2 years) and 17 cubs. Eight adult females were observed with 1–2 cubs during the study. Utilizing Bayesian spatial capture-recapture models, the population density of leopards in Wilpattu National Park was estimated to be 18 leopards per 100 km2. The mean abundance (N) within the effectively sampled area was calculated to be 144 leopards. Notably, the national park maintains a healthy sex ratio of male to female leopards, estimated to be 1:2.03.[3]
From December 1988 to 16 March 2003, the park was closed due to security concerns surrounding the Sri Lankan Civil War, before being reopened to visitors sixteen years later. Visitor access is currently limited to approximately 25% of the park, the remainder of which is dense forest or scrub. Popular visiting periods span between the months of February and October, although there are a number of private ecotourism groups that conduct safaris year-round.
^"Wilpattu Ramsar Wetland Cluster". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
^Kittle, A. M.; Watson, A. C.; Samaranayake, P. K. L. (May 2021). "Edge effects and distribution of prey forage resources influence how an apex predator utilizes Sri Lanka's largest protected area". Journal of Zoology. 314 (1): 31–42. doi:10.1111/jzo.12870. ISSN 0952-8369.
^ abSamarasinghe, Dinal J. S.; Wikramanayake, Eric D.; Gopalaswamy, Arjun M.; Jayewardene, Rukshan; Kumara, Jehan; Fernando, Javana; Gunawardene, Kithsiri; Alexander, Justine Shanti; Braczkowski, Alexander (2022-09-01). "Evidence for a critical leopard conservation stronghold from a large protected landscape on the island of Sri Lanka". Global Ecology and Conservation. 37: e02173. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2022.e02173. hdl:10072/423132. ISSN 2351-9894.
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WilpattuNationalPark (Sinhala: විල්පත්තු ජාතික වනෝද්යානය) is a nationalpark in Sri Lanka. The unique feature of this park is the existence of "Willus"...
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elephants that were found in the wild. The orphanage was located at the WilpattuNationalPark, then shifted to the tourist complex at Bentota and then to the...
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LTTE.” Before they withdrew, the attackers entered the WilpattuNationalPark, taking the park warden Abraham hostage, they rounded up and massacred 24...
effectively expanded the WilpattuNationalPark's boundary to include northern provinces' regions. The original boundary of the park had enclosed the Puttalam...
flooded at Kaduwela. With roads underwater and impassable, the WilpattuNationalPark was closed until 25 May 2016. As water levels on the Kelani River...
2019 a stockpile of suspicious explosives was discovered near the WilpattuNationalPark which contained 100 kilos of high explosives and 100 detonators...
involved in an accident on 22 April 2012 while driving back from WilpattuNationalPark; he was arrested and later acquitted as the result of a head-on...
the construction of a housing project, which is adjacent to the WilpattuNationalPark. The Court of Appeal upheld the view that it was illegal to cut...
2006, Nihal De Silva was killed by a land mine explosion at the WilpattuNationalPark. "The Gratiaen Prize 1993–2007". gratiaen.com. Archived from the...
Muslims walking 50 kilometers to the safety of Puttalam through WilpattuNationalPark. Since the end of the civil war, many Muslims were resettled in...
illegal clearing of the Kallaru Forest Reserve, adjacent to the WilpattuNationalPark and the construction of a housing project. In the winning judgement...
monastery at Karuwalagaswewa, bordering the forest sanctuary of WilpattuNationalPark. Affiliated to Sri Kalyani Yogasrama Samstha. Mahānāma (1993). The...
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