Sharp increase in visitors to National Parks

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

The number of local and foreign visitors to Sri Lanka’s National Parks and wildlife reserves had shown a marked increase during the recent New Year holidays, a spokesman for the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) said. During the two-week school vacation, nearly 40,000 local and foreign tourists visited the Yala National Park.

The Udawalawe and Horton Plains National Parks recorded nearly 12,000 visitors each and Wasgamuwa around 10,000.

All parks in the country are now free of terrorism and more people visited the parks in the North and the East, a spokesperson for the DWC said. Over 8,000 local and foreign tourists visited the recently re-opened Wilpattu National Park during this period.