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The
Island of Paradise - Sri Lanka is well known to
tourists for its coastal tropical beach resorts, the
fascinating eco tourism attractions of nature parks,
rain forests, vast lakes, reservoirs, protected wild
life and the greenish hill country with its
waterfalls, tea estates and year-round cool weather
attracting more and more tourist to Sri Lanka.
Sri
Lanka is a country blessed by nature. Though it is a
island, a mere dot on the world map, it is filled
with a wide verity of beautiful and ecologically
important natural habitants. Sri Lanka harbors a
vast amount of wildlife, far larger in proportion to
her size, because of its environment and its
tropical conditions. Elephants, leopards, deer and
wild boar are some of the main attractions of
wildlife enthusiasts. Bird life is a major portion
of Sri Lanka's wildlife. The abundance of Sri
Lanka's bird life makes it an ornithologist's
paradise.
To
the botanist this is indeed a land of plenty. The
different climate zones allows for trees, tropical
as well as temperate to flourish. The luxuriant
undergrowth and tall majestic trees of the wet-zone
tropical forests contrast with the arid scrubland
and galipot palms of the dry northern and eastern
regions of the island.
Sri
Lanka is a paradise for animal lovers who enjoy
animal or bird watching. There are many national
parks and sanctuaries in Sri Lanka that offer you an
opportunity to observe “real” wildlife at least once
in your lifetime! The animals that roam the national
parks and sanctuaries are many in variety. Example
of animals that you can see in a national park such
as Yala National Park are elephants, leopards, sloth
bears, deer and monkeys, wild buffalos, wild boars,
porcupines, ant-eaters, civet cats, jackals,
mongooses, Loris (unique to Sri Lanka), several
varieties of lizards, squirrels, reptiles and
amphibians.
Today Sri Lanka preserves 12 National Parks, 51
Sanctuaries, and 3 strict Natural Reserves (Horton
Planes, Knuckles range and Peak Wilderness). There
are 628 vertebrates (84 mammals, 379 birds, 133
reptiles and 32 amphibians), a myriad of
invertebrates and about 900 species of fish. Out of
these, 10 mammals, 21 birds, 70 reptiles, 15
amphibians and 17 fishes are endemic, i.e. found
only in Sri Lanka. Out of the 242 species of
butterflies in the island, only 6 kinds live above
4000 feet elevation. There are more than 3000
species of plants, about five times the number in
the United Kingdom. Of these about 25% of the
flowering plants are endemic.
Sri
Lanka with all this natural gift will be the ideal
holiday destination for anyone with any interests.
Either it be Eco or Cultural or just a sunny beach
stay you won’t find a better place than this...
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