BIRD WATCHING & TREKKING IN UDAWATTE KELE SANCTUARY

Being a rich country of natural bio diversity, Sri Lanka elaborates and proves it many times. Udawatte Kele located north of Kandy Lake is an eco-tourism site which expands over 103 hectares. The park was once a forbidden forest called Uda wasala watte (the garden above the royal palace) during the Kandyan kingdom. Visitors can tour the sanctuary every day from 6 am to 5 pm. Though the entire garden was declared as a forest reserve in 1856 and upgraded as a sanctuary in 1938.

This garden has an exclusive collection of avifauna. Other than that it is one of the beautiful bird sanctuaries in Sri Lanka.

Udawatte Kele is on a hill ridge stretching between the Temple of the Tooth and the Uplands- Aruppola suburbs. The highest point of the ridge is 635 meters above sea level and 115 meters above the nearby Kandy Lake.

The sanctuary contains three Buddhist forest monasteries, i.e., Forest Hermitage, Senanayakaramaya and Tapovanaya, and three cave dwellings for Buddhist monks, i.e., Cittavisuddhi-lena, Maitri-lena and Senkadandagala-lena. The sanctuary acts as a catchment area for the supply of water to the city of Kandy.

Udawatte Kele sanctuary houses to varieties of birds like yellow fronted barbet, Layard’s Parakeet, Spot bellied eagle owl, Sri Lankan hanging parrot, Green fronted leaf bird, and native three-toed kingfisher, Sri lanka hill myna (approximately 80 species of birds can be seen). Therefore for the bird experts armed with binoculars, is a great place to explore the bird life. Annual rainfall is recorded about 1615 mm and temperature is around 24 c. The sanctuary is a good location for panoramic photographs of Kandy city and butterflies, mammals which comes very close to you. Endemic animals like toque macaque, jackal, porcupine and mouse deer seems to be common. Obviously 460 species of plants, especially lianas, Shrubs, herbs and small plants are survived in the jungle.