Gal Oya National Park lies in the southeast of Sri Lanka and to the west of Ampara. It was established in 1954 by the Gal Oya Development Board mainly to protect the catchment area of the ‘Senanayake Samudra’ Reservoir, and then handed over to the department of Wildlife Conservation in 1965. Gal Oya National Park, the most untouched of all of Sri Lanka’s National Parks. It encompasses the country’s largest inland body of water, the Senanayake Samudraya Lake. Many small islands providing one of the best places in the world to see the Asian elephant in its natural habitat. Gal Oya is the only place in Sri Lanka where safaris can be conducted by boat, giving you a unique perspective of watching the animals come to the water’s edge to drink and forage along the shore. The 25,900 hectare Park has about 32 species of mammals including the common Langur, the endemic Toque Macaque, Sri Lankan Leopards, Sri Lankan Sloth Bears, Sri Lankan Elephants, wild boar, water buffaloes and 3 species of deer. The large elephant population in the Gal Oya National Park has made many of these islands its own. Mugger crocodiles and the Lesser Albatross Butterfly can also be seen in Gal Oya while on either jeep or boat safaris.
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