Hurulu Biosphere

Ideal to see Elephants

Hurulu Biosphere Park is named after the ancient Huruluwewa tank and was declared as a forest reserve in 1942. The total area of the Hurulu Forest Reserve is around 25,000 hectares. The forest is in the dry zone of Sri Lanka with a mixture of evergreen. It was declared as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve in 1977. A stretch of 1000 hectares of land in the reserve was declared opened as an eco-park in 2007 by the Forest Department. In the forest you can spot plenty of elephants, water buffalo and torque macaques. However, sighting are very low of these mammals: loris, wild boar, sloth bear, spotted deer, pangolin, bandicoot rat, porcupine, jackal, leopard, rusty spotted cat, mongoose. The avifauna includes a variety of endemic birds. Endemic birds such as Sri Lankan jungle fowl, spurfowl, blue faced malkoha and rare rufous woodpecker can be observed if you are lucky. Hurulu acts as an important elephant watching site in the dry zone and large elephant herds can be seen from October to May in Hurulu. Unlike most other dry forests, the trees in these dry evergreen forests retain their leaves during the dry season. Flat lands, an abundance of grasslands and minimal human intervention levels have resulted in an ideal place to see elephants.