Udawalawa National park

Udawalawa national park in Sri Lanka has elephant herds, wild buffalo, sambar deer, and leopards. It is just as wild as the savannah reserves in Africa. In fact, when it comes to seeing elephants, Udawalawe is often better than many of the best-known national parks in East Africa.
The park is based around the 308-square-kilometer Udawalawe Reservoir. It has few plants, but it has a stark beauty, and the lack of dense plants makes it easy to see animals.
It is Sri Lanka’s most important park.

The park’s entrance is 12 km from the road that goes from Ratnapura to Hambantota and 21 km from Embilipitiya. People buy tickets in a building 2 km farther down the road. Most people go on tours set up by their hotel or guesthouse, but you can also take a trip in one of the 4WDs waiting outside. Usually, the last ticket is sold at 5 p.m.

In addition to elephants, sambar deer, and wild buffalo (though most buffalo in the park are domesticated), there are also mongooses, jackals, water monitor lizards, sloth bears, and the occasional leopard. There are 30 different kinds of snakes and 210 different kinds of birds (as of the last count). From November to April, birds from the north join the residents.