Located between Habarana and POLONNARUWA, the 8890 hectares of MINNERIYA NATIONAL PARK is an ideal eco tourism location in Sri Lanka . The park consists of mixed evergreen forest and scrub areas and is home to Sri Lanka ‘s favourites such as sambar deer, leopards and elephants. However the central feature of the park is the ancient Minneriya Tank (built in 3rdcentury AD by King Mahasena). During the dry season (June to September), this tank is an incredible place to observe the elephants who come to bathe and graze on the grasses as well as the huge flocks of birds (cormorants and painted storks to name but a few) that come to fish in the shallow waters.
A flapping sea of black invades the emerald Minneriya Tank, as a flock of two thousand cormorants nosedive for fish. The elephants too, trudge by drinking from the same reservoir.
Not close to being the largest tank in Sri Lanka , Minneriya Tank – with the woods that surround it forming the Minneriya-Giritale National Park – is nevertheless home to an extraordinary diversity of wildlife. If numbers interest you, there are nine species of amphibians, 24 species of mammals, 25 species of reptiles, 26 species of fish (three of which are endangered), 75 species of butterflies and 160 species of birds. Making your way through the park, you will see elephants, Spotted Deer and also the Sambar, which is a deer with no spots and an apt scientific name, carves unicolor . If you’re lucky, a leopard looking for food might cross your path. Less menacing but equally intriguing are the frogs and lizards with their tongues ready. Among the reptiles, the Red-lipped Lizard and Skink are both endemic to Sri Lanka as well as endangered. The frogs, on the other hand, are more abundantly present and have a tendency to jump over your feet or across your eyes between leaves. A notable example with a formidable but misleading title is the Sri Lanka Greater Hourglass Tree Frog.
It all sounds like there’s such a lot to see at the park. But overhead is where the action really is. Sri Lanka , home to over 400 species of birds, has long been a birdwatcher’s paradise. In Minneriya National Park alone, 160 species crowd the trees or strut the banks. You can afford to miss the Painted Storks, Great White Pelican, Gray Herons, and even the Ruddy Turnstones (whatever those are). But do try to spot the Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl, Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot, Sri Lanka Brown-capped Babbler and Sri Lanka Gray Hornbill, because, as you can guess from their names, nowhere else are you going to find them but here, in Sri Lanka. Even if you’re not a bird enthusiast, at least you can boast about your trip later by throwing around some exotic bird-names. International travel guide puts Minneriya wildlife phenomenon among the world’s top wildlife treats. Sri Lanka’s image as a nature-based tourist destination has been given a boost by the internationally acclaimed travel guide Lonely Planet, which has named the “elephant gathering” of Minneriya as one of the world’s “10 greatest wildlife spectaculars.”
‘The Gathering’ is the name given to the elephants that assemble on the banks of the Minneriya Reservoir during the dry season. Every evening, between 150 and 200 elephants arrive at the reservoir, mainly to graze the grasses growing on the tank bed. During the drought, the water level drops, revealing a tank bed that allows the grass to grow. The elephants turn to these much needed fodder at a time when foliage in other areas dry up. The Minneriya reservoir also becomes a playground where the elephants can satisfy their water needs.
The Gathering peaks in August and September, at the height of the drought. According to wildlife authorities, the Minneriya gathering is the largest grouping of wild Asian elephants at any given time.
This congregation of elephants probably goes back centuries, but it was only recently that the phenomenon was considered a potential tourist attraction, thanks to Srilal Miththapala and Gehan de Silva Wijerathne, who promote wildlife tourism in Sri Lanka. Five years ago they branded the wildlife event as The Gathering, and it has been drawing a growing number of visitors since.
The sad news, however, is that The Gathering may be threatened. If a plan to retain the Minneriya waters in the dry season is carried out, the temporary grasslands on the bed of the Minneriya tank would disappear, and the number of elephant visitors would decline. This would affect the area’s elephant population, which depends on the temporary grassland as fodder in the dry season. The baby elephants would be especially seriously affected. The Gathering ranks sixth on the Lonely Planet wildlife spectaculars list. The list includes famous nature events such as the great wildebeest migration in Serengeti; brown bears feasting in Alaska; the penguin rookery in the Atlantic, the Monarch butterfly migration in Mexico; orca feeding in Argentina, starling roosting in England, and the salmon run in South Africa.
It is late afternoon. The open plains of the giant Minneriya reservoir gradually cool as the sun slowly glides down to the horizon. The waters of the reservoir shimmer in the receding sunlight. Slowly from the surrounding scrub jungle a large dark shadow appears. The first matriarch slowly ambles on to the open plains, followed by her family group. They slowly disperse around and start grazing on the lush grass shoots growing on the damp earth, exposed by the receding water of the reservoir. As if on cue, more dark shadows emerge, as matriarchs lead their herds out. In a short while there are over a hundred elephants, large and small, ‘strewn’ all over the plains, eating, playing, jostling , drinking , bathing…… The Gathering has begun.
A unique world phenomenon : A high concentration of elephants in a small area. The Gathering takes place every year usually from about mid July until October, coinciding with the dry season in the North Central/Eastern Province. With the drought, the available water resources in the area dry up, limiting the available water for the large number of wild elephants in the area. A fully grown elephant usually would require about 100 litres of water per day and therefore, accessibility to a good source of water is vital to the elephant’s survival.
The Minneriya Tank or reservoir in the North Central Province covering approximately 8,900 hectares was constructed by King Mahasen in the 3rd century AD, fills up during the North –East monsoon. As the rains cease and the dry season begins, the drought takes it toll, and the water in the reservoir starts to dry up. Although the reservoir shrinks dramatically, it never really runs dry. As the water has recedes, it leaves behind fertile, moist soil, where lush grass quickly sprouts. The entire reservoir is surrounded by scrub jungle, which opens out into the vast plains of the Minneriya tank. This provides an ideal and unique refuge for elephants during the dry season, where there is an abundant source of water, with nutritious grasslands, and also a readymade jungle cover, to retreat to, when the noonday sun becomes too hot. This is what really causes the now famous ‘Gathering’ of elephants at Minneriya. It is not a migration, but really a ‘coming together’ of a number of different herds of wild elephants from the surrounding areas of the North Central Province. It is surmised that elephants from the Wasgomuwa park, and from far-off areas such as Kantale, make this annual visit. This is indeed a unique phenomena, not seen anywhere else in the world -such a high concentration of wild elephantsin such a small area.
