Sinharaja Rain Forest

world heritage

Sinharaja Rainforest is a world heritage site and major eco tourism destination, which can also be described as a Tropical Lowland Rainforest or Tropical Wet Evergreen Forest. Whatever its 'technical' name, it is undoubtedly a rich treasure trove of nature with a great diversity of habitats and a vast repository of Sri Lanka's endemic species found nowhere else in the world. BIRD WATCHING in this ecosystem is particularly interesting because it is home to 95% of the endemic birds of Sri Lanka! Named as a world heritage site in 1989, this lowland evergreen rain forest is steeped in deep legend and mystery. The word 'Sinharaja' means, Lion (Sinha) King (Raja), and it is popular belief that the legendary origin of the Sinhala people is from the union between a princess and the lion king who once lived in the forest!

Sinharaja Forest Reserve is one of the least disturbed and biologically unique lowland rain forests now remaining in Sri Lanka. These Types of Tropical rain forests need to have three main factors in common. First, there should be bright sunlight, secondly there needs to be a high rainfall, distributed all along the year and also a high temperature. This makes the region very humid. Only Sinharaja and few other scattered forest cover of lesser extent in land area in the Southern Western part of Sri Lanka fulfils the above criteria. There is also a good reason for Sinharaja to be a virgin forest but not for the forests in the Northern parts of the Island. Sri Lanka was an agricultural country since 4th Century BC and much of the land in the North Central part of the country, where there are forest covers now, had been under the plough (with rice cultivation ) till around 10th Century AD. So the age of the forest cover their dates back only for around thousand years or so. 

This forest covers an extent of approximately 11187 ha. From east to west the length of the forest is about 21 km. And its width from north to south is about 3.7 km. The Sinharaja forest was initially declared a Man and Biosphere Reserve (MAB) in 1978, as representative of Tropical Humid Evergreen Forest ecosystem in Sri Lanka and has been recognized by UNESCO as part of its International Network of Biosphere Reserves. Based on meteorological records gathered from in and around Sinharaja over the last 60 years, annual rainfall has ranged from 3614mm to 5006mm and temperatures from 19°C to 34°C. Most precipitation emanates from the south-west monsoons during May-July and the north-east monsoons during November-January. Conditions are dry in February. 

There are many endemic plant species found in Sinharaja as for numbers it is identified as 13. Another important feature is that 75% of the forest is covered from the plants endemic to Sri Lanka which is why it is so important to Sri Lanka. Some funs which were believed to extent for ever were found in this forest (such as Lindsaea repens, Tectaria thwaitesii) You can evident five main Flora layers in Sinharaja. Emergent Layer, Canopy Layer, Sub Canopy Layer, under storey Layer and Ground Flora. The Emergent Layer has the tallest trees from all those trees are more than 45 meters in highest. Trees of this category seen in Sinharaja are Dipterocarpus zeylanicus, Dipterocarpus hispidus etc. The Canopy Layer consists of trees like Mesua nagassarium, Mangifera zeylanica, Doona macrophlla. The height of these trees are between 30 and 45 locates bit far from each other.

The total vegetation density, including trees, shrubs, herbs and seedlings has been estimated to be around 240,000 individuals per hectare, of which 95% comprise individuals of the ground layer below 1m in height. The density of trees, lianas above 30cm girth at breast height, ranges between 600-700 individuals/ha. While the number of merchantable individuals of trees of girth greater than 150cm. Ranges between 45-55 individuals/ha.

Sinharaja have revealed that there is a high degree of endemism among the butterflies, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. In fact 95%of the endemic birds of Sri Lanka are recorded in Sinharaja. Endemism among mammals and butterflies are also greater than 50%. Out of the larger mammals, although elephants were said to be common in the past, there have not been reports of sightings during the last 15 years. However, there have been reports of sightings of a few animals in the Eastern Sector. The most common deer species is the Sambhur.The Mouse Deer and Barking deer are also found within the reserve. Leopards are very seldom sighted, but their frequent presence has been confirmed by tracks and other signs. Brown Mongoose and the Golden Palm Civet have been occasionally sighted. The most commonly seen primate is the Purple faced Leaf Monkey.