Wasgamuwa is well known for its abundant wildlife populations, wilderness setting and the home of several interesting ancient sites. Bounded on three sides by rivers it is very diverse with open grasslands, closed forests, scrub jungle, riverine forests, rocky ridges and small tanks. Its location to the east of the Knuckles range provides for a very scenic park.
Wasgamuwa is distinguished from other parks by having a full complement of predators of which bears are particularly noteworthy. Ecological research undertaken in the park suggests that the density of bears in Wasgamuwa is probably higher than anywhere else in Sri Lanka. The name “Wasgamuwa” may also derive from an ancient meaning as a
gathering place for bears.
Part of Wasgamuwa was declared a Strict Nature Reserve in 1938 and additional areas added to become Wasgamuwa National Park on 07th August 1984. The park covers almost
37,062.9 hectares of which most is wilderness areas with no visitation.
The dominant topography is the north-south aligned, quartzite Sudukanda range (535m) in the west of the park, which forms the divide between the two rivers, the Amban Ganga to the west and the Mahaweli Ganga to the east. These two rivers bound the park on its western, eastern and northern sides before meeting on the north east corner of the park. The gem fields in the Kalu Ganga basin in the western part of the park contain high quality gems such as pink and blue sapphires, ruby, gem garnets and kornerupine.
An extensive peneplain stretches eastwards from the foothills of the Sudukanda range to the Mahaweli river with erosion remnants such as Nuganagala (142m) in the north and Udawewalanda (190m) in the south.
The climate is fairly typical of the dry zone with the main influence being the notheast monsoon from October to February. There are also some inter-monsoonal rains in
March-May and then the dry season. Rainfall varies from 1,750mm in the north to 2,250mm
in the south, with an mean annual temperature of 27°C
Wasgamuwa is in the transitional zone between dry areas to the east and wetter areas to the west and, as such has a wide variety of habitats. The main vegetation type is Dry Mixed Evergreen Forest, but due to the variations in geology, landform, soils and hydrological
conditions sub-natural vegetation types can be found. Secondary vegetation type is also
found, resulting from human interventions.
Major plant communities found in the WNP are:
* Natural forests of different canopy levels
* Secondary vegetation types ranging from scrub to low canopy forest (which have resulted
from shifting-chena and paddy cultivation)
* Anthropogenic grasslands
* Natural grasslands and wetlands
Some prominent tree species include palu (Manilkara hexandra), satin wood (Chloroxylon swietenia), weera (Drypetes sepiaria), milla (Vitex altissima), kaluwara (Diospyrus ebenum),wa (Cassia roxburghii), neralu (Elaeodendron glaucum), vellan (Pterospermum canescens) and the endemic galsiyambala (Dialium ovoideum). Along the rivers the forests are dominated by kumbuk (Terminalia arjuna), timbiri (Diospyros malabarica), damba (Syzygium
cumini), makul (Hydnocarpus venenata), mee (Madhuca longifolia) and nabada (Vitex leucoxylon). Two endemic species, etamba (Mangifera zeylanica) and wal sadhikka(Myristica zeylanica) have also been recorded in this forest type. The introduced grass, illuk(Imperata cylindrica), covers large areas of the old clearings in the southern part of the park.
Twenty three species of mammals have been reported from the park. The park is especially known for its high abundance of sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) and has a reputation for
housing some of the largest Asian elephants on earth. Sri Lankan elephants (Elephas maximus maximus) are recognised as the largest variety of Asian elephants and the “marsh elephants” of Wasgamuwa are reputedly the largest of the Sri Lankan elephants. Perhaps around 150 elephants can be found in the park, although herds move from the park north into the Minneriya complex at certain times of year. Spotted deer (Axis axis ceylonesis) are very commonly seen grazing on the grassland as their main predator, the leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) hunts them from the cover of the trees.
Few visitors will not see monkeys, such as the endemic toque macaques (Macaca sinica) and purple faced langurs (Preshytes senex) and crocodiles (Mugger crocodile – Crocodylus palustris) are a common site at water holes. Slender loris (Loris tardigradus) also occur in some abundance, but being nocturnal are rarely seen, just like the smaller cats, such as the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus).
Some 143 species of birds have been recorded of which 5 are endemic to Sri Lanka, including the Sri Lanka jungle fowl (Gallus lafagettii), Sri Lanka trogon (Harpactes fasciatus),
Yellow fronted barbet (Megalaima flavifrons), Red faced malkoha (Phaenicophaeus
pyrrhocephalus) and Sri Lanka spur fowl (Galloperdix bicalcarata).
Other noteworthy species include racquet tailed drongos (Dicrurus caerulescens) and Sri Lanka frogmouth (Batrachostomus moniliger) in the forests and lesser adjutant stork (Leptoptilos javanicus) and white necked storks (Ciconia episcopus) on the tanks.
Fifteen species of amphibians have been reported including the endemic, endangered slender wood-frog and the palm frond frog (Rana garacilis). There are also 35 species of
reptiles, including crocodiles (Crocdylus palustris), common monitor (Varanus bengalensis), lizards and Python (Python molurus). Endemic reptiles include red-lipped lizard (Calotes
ceylonensis) and Earle’s lizard (Otocryptis wiegamanni)
Seventeen species of fish have been recorded and these include two endemic species the stone sucker and combtail.
Many butterflies can be seen flitting around the park and 52 different species have been recorded, out of which 9 are endemic.
