THE COMPLETE DESTINATION GUIDE
Discover Wasgamuwa National Park
Wasgamuwa National Park occupies a stretch of dry-zone forest and grassland bordered by the Mahaweli and Amban rivers, and its name is said to derive from a Sinhala phrase referring to the historical abundance of wasa, or game, in the area. The park supports a genuinely healthy resident elephant population, along with sambar and spotted deer, water buffalo, and — as at Sri Lanka's other dry-zone parks — the possibility, never a guarantee, of a leopard or sloth bear sighting.
What distinguishes Wasgamuwa most is how few other visitors share the park's tracks at any given time, a consequence of its position slightly off the main Habarana-Polonnaruwa touring circuit. For travellers who have found Yala or even Minneriya busier than they would like around a good sighting, Wasgamuwa offers a comparable range of dry-zone wildlife in a genuinely quieter setting, at the cost of a slightly longer drive to reach it from the main Cultural Triangle towns.
Safari drives here follow the same open-jeep, licensed-guide format used throughout Sri Lanka's national parks, typically in the cooler early morning or late afternoon hours. The park's river frontage adds a further habitat variety compared with purely inland parks, and its birdlife is correspondingly varied along the water margins, with a good range of resident and migratory species recorded here over the years.
As with any wild protected area, sightings of any particular species are a matter of chance and local conditions on the day, not a guarantee — this applies as much to Wasgamuwa's elephants as to its more occasional predator sightings.