Udawalawe was created in 1972 to protect the catchment of a new reservoir and to give displaced elephants somewhere to go. The result is 300 square kilometres of open grassland and scrub around a large tank, holding around 500 elephants that are visible almost all the time — which is the whole point.
What makes it different
Yala is thick scrub where wildlife appears and disappears. Udawalawe is open, and you watch herds move across it for as long as you like. For photography, for children, and for anyone who wants one safari that will definitely deliver, it is the better park.
Beyond elephants: water buffalo, spotted deer, jackal, crocodile, and excellent raptors — grey-headed fish eagles, changeable hawk-eagles and the occasional white-bellied sea eagle over the tank. Leopards exist here but are rarely seen.
The Elephant Transit Home
Two kilometres from the park entrance, run by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Orphaned calves are milk-fed until they can be released as a group into Udawalawe itself. Feeding times are 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm and 6pm; the 3pm and 6pm sessions are the easiest to fit around a safari.
