400-Herd of Elephants at Minneriya National Park, North-East Sri Lanka

30th July 2010, www.news.lk

The Minneriya National Park has become a popular tourist destination. The number of foreigners visiting the Minneriya National Park is on the increase and more than 120 foreigners visit the park each day and this number doubles during the weekends. A similar increase is also shown in the number of local tourists visiting the Park.

The daily income of the park has increased to Rs 300,000, and steps are being taken to popularize the park and further increase the income.

A prominent tourist attraction to the park is the possibility of citing of elephants and the Park officials say that more than 400 herds of elephants can be seen on the banks of Minneriya wewa during this season. These herds of elephants come to the banks of the
Minneriya to have fresh grass.

Spread over 8890 hectares, the park is located 182 Km away from Colombo. The Government declared it as a national park in 1997.