Posted 30 Jul 2010

Spotting Asian elephants is likely to be a highlight of any gap year in Sri Lanka.

Now there’s one more place that travellers can go to get up close and personal with these majestic mammals.

A new Asian elephant habitat and walkway in the Uda Walawe national park to promote the conservation of these and other animals in Sri Lanka.

Visitors will enter through a farmer’s tree hut where they will find information about the distribution of elephants in the country and across the Asian continent.

They will then follow a meandering forest trail that passes by a village school and over a water lily pool and features viewing points from which to watch the elephants in their natural environment.

Around 300 elephants are believed to live in the Uda Walawe national park, which is also home to water buffalo, monkeys, sambar deer and water monitor lizards.

The area lies to the south of Sri Lanka’s central hills and consists of abandoned teak plantations, scrub jungle and grassland.

Category: Asia