Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There are 22 villages around the forest, and locals are permitted to enter the area to tap
palms to make jaggery (a hard brown sweet) and treacle, and to collect dead wood and
leaves for fuel and construction. Medicinal plants are collected during specific seasons.
Rattan collection is of more concern, as the demand for cane is high. Sinharaja attracts il-
legal gem miners, too, and abandoned open pits pose a danger to humans and animals, and
cause erosion. There is also some poaching of wild animals.
Wildlife & Plants
Sinharaja has a wild profusion of flora. The canopy trees reach heights of up to 45m,
with the next layer down topping 30m. Nearly all the subcanopy trees found here are rare
or endangered. More than 65% of the 217 types of trees and woody climbers endemic to
Sri Lanka's rainforest are found in Sinharaja.
The largest carnivore here is the leopard. Its presence can usually be gauged only by
droppings and tracks, and it's seldom seen. Even rarer are rusty spotted cats and fishing
cats. Sambar, barking deer and wild boar can be found on the forest floor. Groups of 10 to
14 purple-faced langurs are fairly common. There are three kinds of squirrels: the flame-
striped jungle squirrel, the dusky-striped jungle squirrel and the western giant squirrel.
Porcupines and pangolins waddle around the forest floor, mostly unseen. Civets and mon-
gooses are nocturnal, though you may glimpse the occasional mongoose darting through
the foliage during the day. Six species of bats have been recorded here.
Sinharaja has 45 species of reptiles, 21 of them endemic. Venomous snakes include the
green pit viper (which inhabits trees), the hump-nosed viper and the krait, which lives on
the forest floor. One of the most frequently found amphibians is the wrinkled frog, whose
croaking is often heard at night.
There is a wealth of birdlife: 160 species have been recorded, with 18 of Sri Lanka's 20
endemic species seen here.
Sinharaja has leeches in abundance. In colonial times the British, Dutch and Portuguese
armies rated leeches as their worst enemy when they tried to conquer the hinterland (which
was then much more forested), and one British writer claimed leeches caused more casual-
ties than all the other animals put together. These days you needn't suffer as much because
all guides carry antileech preparations.
Practical Information
