It is the main national park spread over a large area in the south-west of Sri Lanka. Although this reserve, which belongs to both Uva and Southern provinces, is 979 square kilometers in size, only 141 square kilometers of land is open to the public.
Most of the reserve is scrubland, but this is a park that is populated by a variety of ecosystems, including forested areas, springs, rivers, and scrubland. These scrublands are populated by scattered rocky outcrops. The park provides habitat to a large number of animal species.
Yala Reserve has the largest leopard population in the world. However, large nocturnal carnivores have to work hard to find their prey, and finding prey often depends on luck. Among the large animals that live here are Asian elephants, crocodiles, wild boars, buffaloes and gray lions. Flowering cranes, Ceylon sandcocks and Indian peacocks are also found in the park. And leeches flock to the wetlands.
The Wildlife Conservation Center and Sarachaka Bungalow were destroyed by the Tsunami on 26th December 2004. Among the casualties were the employees of Sarachaka Bungalow and foreigners. The reason why animal lives were not destroyed in a big way is that the animals that sensed the coming of the tsunami fled to higher ground. Later, the Yala Park was reopened.
One of the two oldest national parks in Sri Lanka. Yala Park This was announced on 25th February 1983. Yalai is the famous park of our country. Also, this park is very well known in Sri Lanka even abroad. Yala Forest was used as a hunting ground by the British since 1900. It was designated as a hunting reserve in 1900. In 1908 it was declared a sanctuary. Later, the Yala forest was divided into five zones and zone number one was elevated to a national park on 25 February 1938. Later the remaining four zones were also declared under Yala Park. There is also a strict nature reserve within the park.