Beautiful Sri Lanka

   Sri Lanka is truly a wondrous place, a subcontinent's diversity packed into one tiny island. There aren't many placed in the world where one can be snorkeling in the morning in swarm seas with rich coral reefs and be in the mist draped coolness of a cloud forest by evening, listening to the alarm calls of sambar warning against a hunting leopard.

By Yashoda Somarathne

    In the lowlands on the south west, rain forests are a cathedral of bio-diversity. These are amongst the richest rain-forests of South Asia. In the dry lowlands, the largest terrestrial mammal, the elephant roams. the largest concentration of Asian Elephant in the world occurs seasonally in Sri Lanka during ' The Gathering'. The island is also the best chance in Asia for seeing leopard and sloth bear. No less than thirty three species of birds are found only in Sri Lanka. In Sinharaja, the 'Sinharaja Bird Waves' can be seen the mixed species feeding flocks, which are the largest of its kind in the world. 

    Sri Lanka is one of the most bio-diverse places in the world. It has a phenomenally high number of species of plant and animals in terms of density of species and their endemicity. This together with the relative ease of access and the availability of good facilities for travellers make it an excellent destination for eco-tourists. 

    Sri Lanka is endowed with an abundance of tourism resources of considerable diversity, including beaches along its 1585 km coastline, natural/ ecological and wildlife attractions, indigenous culture, Buddhist heritage, and remnants left by Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch and British seafarers. Since its independence in 1948. Sri Lanka has enjoyed a growing number of visitors and sustained growth in the tourism industry. However, tourism activities declined dramatically in the mid-1980's due to ethnic unrest and violence between Tamil Hindu minority and the Sinhalese Bhuddhist majority. But now the war has finished and Sri Lanka having the largest tourists attraction with compared with its history.

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   Endowed with a unique mixture of golden beaches, abundant wildlife, and rich cultural heritage, Sri Lanka is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region. According to the World Tourism Organization, Sri Lanka has the advantage of having 49 sited classified as unique attractions, 91 as rare attractions, and 7 world  heritage sites, and 6 of the 300 ancient monument in the world.

Beauty of the Hill country

View of  ''Mahaweli maha seya'' 
from Kottmale dam( by Yashoda Somarathne)

The construction of the Mahaweli Maha Seya commenced on 20th March 1983, under patronage of the Late Hon. Gamini Dissanayake, then the Minister of Mahaweli Development, an idea of Venerable Elle GunawansaThero, to fill the void, created by the submersion of a number of Buddhist Shrines in the construction of Kotmale Reservoir and the accelerated Mahaweli Programme net work. This Mahaweli Maha Seya was meant to be a modern monument to the great Cultural Heritage of the country and the religious Icons lost in the process of some development activities of modern Sri Lanka.

Mahaweli Maha seya -Under-construction
 ( by Yashoda Somarathne)

 For the first time in 1700 years since the glorious ancient days in which Sri Lankan line of Kings flourished, a massive stupa named Kotmale Mahaweli Maha Seya Complex is now being built, utilizing the state-of-the-Art technology and techniques enabling this massive structure to symbolize the contribution of not only of the privileged but also the masses everywhere in the world.

This majestic Stupa is a landmark structure of epic scale, sited on an escarpment overlooking the Kotmale Reservoir. This Mahaweli Maha Seya will be the first Mega Stupa of Kandyan Kingdom and is associated with the Sri Dalada Maligawa of Kandy.

The structure of Mahaweli Maha Seya designed by the former Chairman of the Mahaweli Cultural Foundation Trust, late Vidya-Jyothi Dr. A.N.S. Kulasinghe; an eminent engineer of international repute is now nearing completion. The designed height of the Stupa is 2 feet lower than the great Ruwnweli Mahaseya at Anuradhapura.

View of  Ramboda and Kotmala oya from Kottmale dam
( by Yashoda Somarathne)

The Kotmale Oya has its beginning in the South Central massif at an elevation of 2134 m.(7000 ft.) and is about 70 km. (43.3 mls) in lengh draining a toatal area of 58,534 ha.(226 sq.mls) and dropping 1,585 m (5,200 ft) before meeting the Mahaweli ganga. Rainfall data from 1907 onwards are available for this region.The Kotmale Oya flows through the rural up-country of Sri Lanka passing ancient villages steeped in history and tea plantations of a more recent ara. The tranquility of this river valley has been changed recently with the construction work of the Kotmale Hydropower reservoir. Financial assistance for the project has been provided by the government of Sweden.

Kotmale Dam ( by Yashoda Somarathne)

  The dam site is at Kadadora located about 6.6 km (4.1 mls) upstream of the confluence of Kotmale Oya with Mahaweli ganga at a place where the river enters a narrow and deep valley with steep banks. It is close to the Pussellawa-Ulapane highway and is 12 miles from Gampola town and 88 miles from Colombo. The nearest railhead is Ulapone, 7 miles away.

The power house is underground and situated in the belly of the Atabage Mountains, about 6.4 km (4 mls) downstream of the Kotmale Oya – Mahaweli ganga confluence. the project headworks lie on the right bank of the mahaweli ganga and is partly in the Kandy district and partly in the Nuwara Eliya district. Access to the main project headworks can be thourgh two routes. One is from the new access road constructed from the Gampola – Nuwara Eliya road just outside Gampola town, which passes close to the underground power station and joins the Ulapane- Pussellawa road. The other is though the latter road from Ulapane which passes close by the right abutment of the dam.

( by Yashoda Somarathne)

 The Kotmale project envisages the construction of a 87 m (285 ft.) high Rockfill dam with a concrete membrane across the Kotmale Oya, an important right bank tributary in the upper reaches of the Mahaweli ganga about 25 miles upstream of the Polgolla barrage constructed under Project I of the Master Plan. The Kotmale project was mainly for the development of hydro power and the regulated discharge from the reservoir to increase the flow diverted at the Polgolla barrage into the proposed Moragahakanda reservoir for augmenting the irrigation suppled in systems. The reservoir would reduce flood peaks and their frequency, thus alleviated the floods in the Gampola area below it.

The dam would create a reservoir having an effective storage capacity of about 174 m. cm. (141,000 acre feet) enabling regulation of a large proportion of the recorded mean annual flow of the Kotamale oya at the dam site. The water impounded by the reservoir would be conveyed through an underground water conductor system to an underground power station located at about 7.2 km. (4.5 miles) from the dam for generation of electric power. After power generation, this water will be discharged through the outfall into the mahaweli ganga at the Atabaghe Oya confluence.

In addition to the generation of power, the regulated waterwill improve the pattern of inflows of the Mahweli ganga at the existing Polgolla diversion dam. This will firm up the power benefits from Ukuwela power station and serve to increase the irrigation water supplies from the Bowatenne dam.

Main features :

- A rockfill dam 87.0 m high and 600 m long

- A chute spillway with a capacity of 5500m3/Sec. consisting of 3 radial gates 14x15m

- A hourse shoe shaped 6.4, diameter low pressure tunnel system nearly 7.0 Km. long with a capacity of 113.3m3/Sec (4000 cusecs)

- A high pressure shaft with diameter varying from 4.8 – 5.5 m

- An underground power station with an installed capacity of 3x67 MW.

- An access tunnel providing access to the power station and a tail-race tunnel to discharge the water after generation of power.

Flora and fauna species that I've found during the trip.....

Kirtisinghe's Frog (Fejervarya kirtisinghei)
(by Yashoda Somarathne)

This frog species is endemic to Sri Lanka. I found it near water stream in Nawalapitiya area.Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montanes, moist savanna, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, rivers, swamps, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marches, plantations , and rural gardens.It has been recorded from many protected areas including Sinharaja World Heritage Site, Victoria-Randenigala-Rantambe Sanctuary, Udawattekele Forest Reserve, Peak Wilderness Sanctuary, Kelani Valley Forest Reserve, Kanneliya Forest Reserve, Knuckles Forest Reserve, Tangamalai Forest Reserve and the Wasgamuwa National Park.

Grasshopper(by Yashoda Somarathne)

Grasshoppers have a fairly simple body design. The rounded head capsule contains the compound eyes, chewing mouth parts, and the short thread-like antennae, which are always shorter than the body (hence the name “short-horned” grasshoppers, in contrast to another suborder, the katydids or “long-horned” grasshoppers). The middle thoracic segments and part of the abdomen are covered by a shield-like pronotum that extends from the first thoracic segment. The forewings are leathery and not used for flight. Instead they protect the delicate hind wings, which are folded accordion-like beneath the forewings until they are unfolded for flight. However, all immature stages and the adults of many species lack wings altogether and cannot fly.
The most noticeable feature of grasshoppers is their long, jumping hind legs, which enable them to leap well over 20 times their body length (imagine a 6-foot tall person jumping 120 feet!). However, while the powerful jumping muscles of the hind legs provide the force necessary for leaping, they cannot propel the grasshopper in these impressive leaps unaided. Most of the kinetic energy to do this comes not from the muscles, but from the semilunar crescent located in the knee of the hind leg. This crescent-shaped organ is made of elastic fibers that store energy in preparation for a jump; they release this energy explosively, propelling the grasshopper forward many times its body length.
Grasshoppers develop through incomplete metamorphosis. The nymphs appear similar to the adults except that they lack wings and have incomplete reproductive organs. The number of instars (larval stages between molts) through which a grasshopper develops before reaching adulthood is fixed in some species (typically 4 to 6). In others, it depends on growing conditions: the better the conditions, the fewer the immature stages.