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In a move hailed as a long-overdue conservation victory, Sri Lanka has formally declared Nilgala — a sweeping mosaic of grasslands, forests and sacred sites — as a protected forest reserve, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay.
Spanning more than 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres), Nilgala is now the largest intact savanna ecosystem in the country and one of its most ecologically diverse landscapes.
Nestled on the eastern edge of Uva province, Nilgala’s dry evergreen forests and isolated hills give rise to microhabitats that shelter flora and fauna found nowhere else on the island. Endemic reptiles, such as the Nilgala day gecko (Cnemaspis nilgala) and Cyrtodactylus vedda, thrive alongside culturally revered plants once used in royal Ayurvedic medicine.
“These features create diverse microhabitats that have allowed species typically restricted to the wet zone or cooler, mist-covered highlands to thrive here,” says ecologist Suranjan Fernando.
The region is not only biologically rich but spiritually resonant. Nilgala is the ancestral homeland of the Vedda people, Sri Lanka’s Indigenous forest dwellers.
“To the Vedda community, Nilgala is not just a forest, but a sacred living space where the spirits of our ancestors dwell,” says clan chief Suda Vanniyalaathto. At the June 2 declaration ceremony, the Veddas performed the traditional Kiri Koraha dance to honor the forest’s guardians.
Nilgala’s protection is the fruit of decades of activism. In 2014, amid fears of land conversion for agriculture, Buddhist monks and environmentalists staged a powerful protest by symbolically ordaining 1,000 trees. It worked. The trees were spared, and momentum for legal protection grew.
Yet threats linger. Land grabs and development interests continue to loom. Conservationists emphasize that community involvement will be key to Nilgala’s future. As Hemantha Withanage of the Centre for Environmental Justice puts it, “These community groups act as both guardians and first responders.”
Read the full story by Malaka Rodrigo here.
Banner image: Cnemaspis nilgala is a gecko found only in the rocky outcrop of Nilgala and is named after this unique habitat. Image courtesy of Suranjan Karunarathne.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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