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In Sri Lanka, people can watch elephants gather in September
Sri Lanka can offer tourists a range of wildlife experiences. Animals like elephants, leopards and sloth bears live on the island in protected areas where nature lovers can watch them, something hard to do elsewhere in Asia. Visitors can also enjoy the island’s pristine forests and watch its whales and dolphins.
“In September, we are going to offer tourists an opportunity to see wildlife. One of the main attractions is going to be the gathering of elephants,” said Rumy Jaufer, managing director of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau. “For the past six months, we have conducted a series of theme-oriented promotions. September will be Wildlife Month,” he explained. For him, tourism has great potential for the country’s economy.
For Dirk Grigson, president of the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators, the island nation offers unusual attractions, such as a high concentration of elephants, leopards and whales.
In August, hundreds of elephants come together at a drying reservoir in Minnerriya in north-central Sri Lanka, in what is the largest gathering of Asian elephants in the world.
The Yala National Park is home instead to the largest concentration of leopards in the world, and it is not easy to catch a glimpse of them.
In September, conferences with naturalists will be held, with specialists like Professor Sarath Kotagama, Gehan De Silva Wijeratne, Srilala Miththapala and Chitral Javatilake.
Such large-scale animal concentrations are infrequent in Asia, but normal in Sri Lanka and Africa, said Gehan De Silva Wijeratne.
“Sri Lanka is only 140 miles across and is covered by protected primary and secondary forests,” he explained. It is home, to not only elephants and leopards, but also sloth bears and dozens of bird species. On the coast, whales and dolphins can be seen just a few miles off the shore.
During the civil war, many areas were off limits to tourists, but are now safe and open to tourist.
In the first seven months of this year, the country welcomed 465,324 tourists, up 36 per cent over last year. In July alone, 69,339 tourists visited the island, an increase of 32 per cent.
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