Kumana National Park

Why Visit

The island's premier birdwatching destination, especially during the nesting season when lagoons fill with storks, herons and pelicans.

A wetland park on the east coast adjoining Yala, best known as a nesting ground for large numbers of migratory and resident waterbirds.

History

This area was originally managed as part of Yala, known as Yala East, before being separated out and redesignated in its own right as Kumana National Park in 2006. Like the rest of the Yala region, it sits within a dry-zone landscape long shaped by ancient irrigation works, and the Kumana Villu, the large brackish lagoon at its heart, is fed partly by an ancient man-made canal believed to be well over a thousand years old, still channelling water into the wetland today. Nearby, the Kudumbigala rock hermitage, with monastic cave cells cut into the rock, dates back over two thousand years and points to a much older human presence in this landscape than the modern park boundary suggests. Access to the area was limited for years during the civil war given its proximity to former conflict zones, and visitor numbers have grown gradually since the region reopened.